


Fated

by ImpartingAbyss



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-09
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-03-22 03:24:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3713023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImpartingAbyss/pseuds/ImpartingAbyss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All my life I yearned for something I couldn't name. I knew its color, its taste, I knew without a doubt that when I found it my entire world would shift. But I didn't know where to look, or what I was looking for..I asked myself recently,, "Had I known what pain I would have to face to find it, would I have done it all over again?" And I knew instantly that the answer was yes, and always would be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

" I feel like an idiot."

" Your not an Idiot."

" But I should have seen this coming! How did I fall for his shit? "

" Gawd woman ! You Do realize that you sound like every other woman since the beginning of time right? This whole conversation is becoming cliche`." 

And it was, they had been going in circles about this for a while now. Rachel knew Meghan was hurting. But that penis slinging ass-face she had been dating did Not deserve her friend's time, tears or pain. She could, however, think of at least ten types of pain the s.o.b. did deserve, and she would gladly volunteer to deliver it. Expedited, and with a super friendly smile - note extreme sarcasm.

Sitting around was not something she was good at either. Not when she had a problem that needed fixing. She faced them head on and as quickly as possible. Like everyone else, she had been taught that running from things only made them worse. People had taught her that lesson, life had driven it home, repeatedly. So sitting here, stewing over something she felt she should do something about but really couldn't, frustrated the hell out of her.

Not only in Rachel's opinion did the asshole need his dick super-glued to his kneecap, but she was worried about what this whole mess would mean for her friend at work. 

So a part of her wanted to make him pay for what he had done, and another wanted to be sure he understood that Meghan was to be left in peace. He wasn't her boss. Not directly anyway. Rachel remembered Meghan saying something about him being a higher ranking official in the company. He could make trouble for her friend at work and it pissed her off that there wasn't really anything she could do to prevent it. Not legally anyway. All of the plans she had would only land her pretty ass in jail. And how could she preach to her friend that he wasn't worth the time just to end up serving time because of the bastard? Exactly. She couldn't. Not that whooping his ass would fix him anyway. His particular breed of bastard never really changed.

Her toes began to tingle, letting her know she had been sitting far too long with her feet beneath her on the couch. Her foot would be next, then the annoying pins and needles would assault her leg. She needed to get up and move around. But where she wanted to get up and move around too she knew her friend would not approve of and she was having an increasingly difficult time not letting her anger take her up town and committing a few felonies, a misdemeanor or two and dealing out some sorely needed justice. 

So to save herself some jail time and her friend the bail money, she popped her butt up off the couch and strode purposefully to the living room window. Running her hands hastily through her hair in frustration and snagging a few tangles in the process, she stared out the 4th floor window and thanked whatever deities were listening, that her friend had finally gotten past the shock and numbness.. 

Witnessing what she had could not have been easy. So Rachel really didn't want to judge her friends behavior, and she wouldn't. The girl had been so stupefied by what she had seen, she had nearly checked out of reality for a while. She wouldn't move from her spot on the couch to do anything but use the bathroom for nearly three days. 

For those three days Rachel had talked to her constantly, hoping to get through to her. She had urged her to eat but nothing passed her lips but water. She would drink but only from a straw and only if Rachel held the cup, and other than the occasional adjustment to her sitting position her friend would not move from the spot she occupied on the old sofa.

Then one morning Meghan took a deep breath before looking into Rachel's eyes and she just sighed and gave a quick nod and got up. After taking a long shower she dressed and walked back into the kitchen and made herself a bowl of Cheerios. 

Rachel had been so surprised at her friends sudden recovery that she hadn't wanted to do or say anything to scare her back into that vegetative state. So she played along. Answering her friends mundane questions about how things had been and what she had been up too. Like nothing had happened. As if the last three days had never occurred. Once she finished her cereal, Meghan rinsed out her bowl and spoon before placing them in the dishwasher and dried her hands on the little towel hanging from the oven. 

When she turned back toward the table though Rachel could see the mask falling and the tears finally filling her friends green eyes. That was this morning. Now they were at the ice-cream and self-loathing stage of the process… But at least the tears and hysteria had stopped. That was a plus.

Looking out the window into the darkened alley Rachel admired the purple haze the city lights cast across the walls. A mix of colors that together created a beautifully sinister glow across the brickwork and metal grating. 

She recalled the first few hours after Meghan had started crying, everything her friend had been internalizing for three days had finally come out. Every painful thought, every question and feeling had exploded out of her, bringing the girl to her knees. Rachel had rushed to her side, holding her close and letting her scream her frustration out into her hair. 

The lady downstairs in 312 actually came up to see if everything was alright. Luckily the elderly woman was compassionate and understanding and even came in and talked to Meghan for a moment, helping to calm her down. 

Rachel knew her long time friend had been embarrassed that her outburst had disturbed her neighbor enough that she came up to check on her, and that may have been what finally helped to calm her down.

Nothing like an embarrassing reality check to put ones situation into perspective right?. She wasn't sure exactly what the old lady had said to her because she had been making tea in the kitchen while they talked. But her friend had been in a scary place for a while there and she had calmed down considerably after the old woman left. So whatever it was she had said, it had worked.

Maybe the old woman from 312 had been through something similar in her long life that she shared with Meghan. Rachel never let anyone get close enough to hurt her anymore so she didn't really know what to say, only how to hold her as she fell apart.. 

Its always hard to find out someone is being unfaithful, especially if you catch them in the act. But what he had done when she walked in, and his reaction… 

Rachel knew Meghan would have been less surprised if a naked rodeo clown had jumped out of the kitchen closet and slapped her with a dead fish. OK maybe that was a bit of a stretch. But you get the point! What she walked in on was.. well .. bad. 

So Meghan had calmed down considerably after 312 left. The old woman saying she had to get to bed, some nightly ritual or something. She wasn't sure what the old ladies name was. Almost felt bad for not knowing. Especially after the woman had helped to calm her friend down. Meghan more than likely had told her at some point but she had always sucked at remembering peoples names. Faces she could remember. Names, not so much. So she just started referring to her by her apartment number. It was just a habit at this point.

'I need a smoke,' she thought to herself.

She had just decided to quit smoking when all of this had happened. Meghan wasn't going to like it but Rachel needed it right now. Unlatching the ancient locks on the old window she quickly slid the glass up enough to crawl out onto the fire escape. The apartment was located on the fourth floor of an older building that had been converted into lofts. 

The girls often used the old iron staircase to access the roof above when nights were clear enough for a few stars to peek through the city's ever present haze of lights. The blond left sitting on the couch watched her go. Her brows furrowed in displeasure but thankfully she said nothing. Rachel really didn't need the reminder that she needed to quit. 

A rush of cold city air swirled in through the window as it slid open and the chilly October breeze caused goose bumps to spread up her arms. She was a seasoned smoker however and mentally thumbed her nose at the dropping temperatures outside. Her left foot had gone to sleep after sitting on it for so long and the pins and needles tingling up her calf were not helping her gracefully extricate herself from the apartment window. Doing a little wiggle hop shimmy she made it out in one piece and onto the fire escape. 

Plopping down for her nicotine fix she shivered. No amount of cold air was going to keep her from her addiction damn it. She knew Meghan didn't like the smell but it had been hours since her last one and she needed it. Right?. She had just found a comfortable sitting position on the rusty metal stairs when her luck ran out in the lecture department.

"Your going to smell like a dirty ashtray."  
 Oh look…theres the unwanted opinion. She smiled a little.. Here we go.

Digging in her Ben&Jerry's carton for another spoonful of ice-cream, Meghan mumbled, "I don't know why you started smoking again anyway, its not like You saw your boyfriend fucking somebody else." 

Ouch.

That was harsh. True.. but harsh. Rachel didn't take the bait though. Her friend was just hurting and she knew that particular barb wasn't actually meant to piss her off or hurt her in anyway.. Well, definitely not hurt anyway, taunt her maybe but not hurt. Meghan wasn't normally a vicious person. She was just lashing out any way she could because she didn't know how to deal with the situation. Apparently her cigarette smoking was offensive enough to kick start the pissed off part of this emotional roller coaster. You could taste the venom in Meghan's words. This girl was positively toxic right now. 

She would let her friend get the poison out. Meghan wasn't trying to be mean to her, and she knew that. The poor girl just needed to vent, and the best thing she could do for her right now was be understanding.. She could be the verbal punching bag if thats what her friend needed. So she only rolled her eyes and said, " Maggie, I know your hurting. You know your hurting.You know I know your hurting and now the lady in 312 knows your hurting," that earned an eye roll and unladylike snort of derision from Meghan. 

Rachel flashed a smart ass grin before she continued, "So, if you Don't want to explain to the officers down at station 12 why 'Your' hurting, caused the chain of events leading up to 'My' arrest, I suggest you let me enjoy this cigarette." She ended with a wag of her cancer stick. It only took a moment for the image of that very real possibility to cause both girls to laugh out.

Meghan coughed out, "What makes you so sure I would bail your ass out huh?" That earned a full bodied laugh from Rachel.

"Pah-lease." She snorted, " Like you could let all this," she motioned to her whole body, " rot in jail, aand.. because, you love me! Even if you don't want to.."

Meghan cracked a smile and replied, "yeah.. but I would definitely let you sweat it first!"

"Three hots and a cot baby."

The two girls chatted a little more about what had happened, Meghan hadn't given her the whole story yet. She only had the cliffs notes version. So Meghan spent the next few minutes explaining exactly what had happened three days ago. After having the whole story, Rachel had a new respect and understanding for her friend. Respect: because she didn't kill the son of a bitch and the whore he was fucking. Understanding: because after what he did …. God man that was just cruel and fucked up in a special way. Now her behavior made a little more sense. Rachel still would have killed him. But her friend wasn't a hot head or a vindictive person at all. Hell, she could barely put someone down in a play fight.

Now that Rachel had all the details, she digested the information as she chipped at the old paint that was flaking off the fire-escape. The iron had been repainted a few times over the years and was slowly falling into disrepair again. Tiny chips of missing paint riddled the grating and rails. Scraping off a few loose pieces of paint, she lit a smoke and frowned down at her feet. Her boots, were a present from Meghan, and reminded her of her friends first date with Micheal. She had been so shocked that he had asked her out. The girl was a mess. She couldn't find anything she thought was good enough to wear. A pile of discarded outfits littered her queen bed, the floor, Rachel's head … One would think that the girl owned nothing but rags the way she was going on. Rachel finally suggested they go shopping, as much as she hated going into department stores and being around all those people, her friend was having a melt down and that was the only solution she could think of to fix it. So they walked the few blocks to a string of dress stores and after a bit of searching she found this perfect little black cocktail dress and matching pumps. While she was paying, Meghan caught her ogling a pair of fairly expensive knee high boots. She knew Rachel would never spend that much money on shoes for herself no matter how badly she wanted them. Or let Meghan buy them for her while she was there. So Meghan waited two days before she went back to the store alone and purchased them, then giving them to her for her birthday a month later. Rachel had never taken such good care of a pair of shoes either. Rachel glanced up through the window to steal a peak at her friend, Rachel had been hoping Meghan would get past the moping stage and into the Fuck him and the horse he rode in on stage so they could have they're little post breakup ceremony on the roof and get hammered. It was they're ritual. The leggy blond on the couch was just about there too.

Meghan looked thoughtful suddenly, tapping her spoon on her bucket, she turned her head toward the open widow and voiced her thoughts, " you know Shell, I really think men should come with warning labels. I know its been said before, but damn if it isn't true!"

Rachel giggled back, adding, " Yeah, something like,"Caution: Will waste All of your fertile years, Drain your bank account, find a way to Scratch himself in Public and Never appreciate you."" It was true though, at least in her experience. " Men do suck girl, if strong chests, broad shoulders and muscular thighs didn't make me salivate like a panhandler at a dinner party, I'd try batting for the other team," she replied dreamily. Too bad she was straight as board.

Meghan choked on her ice cream from the couch and coughed out, " you sound like your mother!"

"Don't you dare," Rachel pointed at her friend, " compare me to that harlot." She ended, voice rising in indignation.

The couch potatoe couldnt stop giggling." Your mother," she snorted out, " was not a harlot."

Rachel raised one finely trimmed brow. Pulling off the best skeptical look she could, she asked, "Oh really? Then what was she?"

Meghan was actually looked a little stumped, Rachel's mom, while not a bad mother or person, was actually quite…umm.." Attention deprived ? " she tried.

"Pfft," Rachel tried to say the rest with as straight a face as she could muster, "Try horny as hell. That woman would screw a telephone pole if it had a picture of a hot guy on it."

Chuckling, Meghan smiled adding, "yeah well with that bad ass attitude you run around with. Your pension for wearing manly clothes, and the fact that your more handy than Manny, you could definitely pass for a butch." She had to quickly dodge the cigarette lighter that was suddenly flying through the air toward her head. Giggling madly, she dodged the impromptu weapon and caught it up after it bounced off the couch behind her. She was really glad her friend had stayed with her though all this mess. Tossing the little red lighter back to the brunette she realized her dark mood was beginning to lift. She felt about ready to dust herself off and start moving forward. Poor Mrs. Gladys downstairs… Meghan felt bad for having disturbed the poor woman. But she had seemed understanding enough and had been more than happy to try and help Meghan through her breakdown. Ill have to do something to tell her thanks,she thought to herself. Rachel was still talking to her from the window though, so Meghan tried to tune back into the conversation, focusing on the fire escape outside her window and the not so quietly fuming Valkyrie who was occupying it. Meghan was trying to catch up to the conversation, Rachel had been going on about something, what was it now?

" Men are more trouble than they're worth…. If we could just, find some way to lock them all up like cattle we could solve a lot of the worlds problems. Then we could bring them out when we needed them instead of letting them run a muck. You know," she said, eyes flashing naughtily, " for those, Hard times."

Meghan just shook her head, " it would never work."

" OK, OK! Theres a few details to be worked out I know, But! I still think its a good idea," she trailed off with a smirk. Obviously still thinking about thosehard times.

" And what the hell are you going to call this new Eden? Huh? Estrogen Acres?"….Meghan couldn't help but laugh at her own corny joke.

" Laugh all you want but in My world," Rachel started counting off on her fingers, " One, Men would HAVE to get their Playboy magazines, for the articles, because there would be no pictures. Two," she continued, raising another finger, " Men, would have to sit around and wonder what we are thinking! Three," she ticked off another finger, " They would not be allowed to eat gas-producing foods within two hours of bedtime."

Meghan was dieing of laughter by this point and Rachel kept going.

" Four, All toilet seats would be nailed down! ; Five, All men would be forced to spend one month in a PMS simulator. ; And Number Six, my personal favorite… During mid-life crisis, men would get the hot-flashes and women would date hot 20 year olds." She followed her dramatic outburst with an equally dramatic flop onto her ass.

Her friend stopped laughing long enough to point out, " You got half of that from your mom! "

" Yeah well, the shoulders of giants and all."

After laughing it up for a few more minutes, things began to chill back down and both girls began to stew again.

Meghan still sat at the end of her sofa closest to her window, legs curled under her body, elbows tucked close, shoveling spoonfuls of ice cream into her mouth. She had thought he really liked her. Micheal had seemed like the perfect guy. Nice, funny, attractive, successful. He would actually call her or text her during the day just to say, "Hey, how are you doing." And she was always able to reach him. She knew how busy he was. She worked for the same company. Although a different sector and building, she had an idea of what it took for him to make time to call her, and she had fawned over him even more for it.

He always picked her up for their dates and brought her home. At the time, she thought he was a perfect gentleman. It was just too easy. Her job and hobbies kept her busy and he always worked with her schedule. He made her feel important. She had had no idea. She felt so naive and Pathetic, to have been so obliviously happy to have someone who 'loved' her that she was completely blind to his real machinations. She wasn't, in fact, the center of his universe. She was barely a piece of space junk caught in his orbit.

She could see now all of his noble gestures were his way of keeping up with her so she didn't stumble across him during his 'playtime'. Thats why he kept up with her so closely, never giving her cause to search him out. Meghan wasn't a child, breakups weren't new to her. At 27 years old she had been in her fair share of relationships. None of them had worked out either. That's life though, Trial and Error, few people are lucky enough to get it right the first time and she was OK with that... This though, this was different, this was cruel and insulting and lots of other adjectives she couldn't quite think of right then but she had never been through anything like 'this' before. If she had ever been cheated on in a past relationship she was blissfully unaware of it. The look on his face when she had shown up at his apartment and found them together... That was one night she would never forget. No matter how badly she wished she could bleach it from her mind.

She had wanted to surprise him with dinner. So she had lied to him for the first time since they met. He had called her at work that afternoon and asked her if she was free for dinner. She'd told him she was working late and would not be able to see him that night. The truth was she was already packing up her things to head home. She had an unexpected change in her plans that day and had ended up close by. As a result she had finished work early and had plenty of time to go home and cook something special. She felt horrible for lying, but told herself he would forgive her when she surprised him with his favorite meal at his house for once. After all he was always so ready to do all the traveling so she didn't have to. She wanted to do something special for him for a change. The surprise was hers however. When she arrived at his brownstone, the door was already unlocked and slightly ajar. Apparently, he and his 21 year old secretary hadn't been able to wait until they were inside the apartment and in they're haste, hadn't closed the door completely. She should have turned around when she heard the womans voice. She was surprised someone was there but prepared to find a friend or maybe family of his she had not met. She never could have imagined she would find what what was waiting for her. When she passed through the kitchen door, she had a clear view of who was there and exactly what they were doing and they were Not setting the table. The casserole dish she had been holding fell from her hands. The sound of thick glass hitting ceramic tile and shattering caused all movement and sound to cease. Two pairs of eyes were suddenly looking at her…

And for a split second she thought he would try to talk his way out of it.

He must have realized that there was no talking his way out of this one though. He was caught, balls deep in his pretty little secretary and she had a perfect view of his bare ass as he fucked her on the dinning room table.

Thats when he smiled at her, the bastard actually fucking smiled. It was the cockiest, most self assured smile she had ever seen in her life. She was stunned, shocked, she couldn't move or speak. Though she knew she should do or say something her breath was caught in her throat. Her mind, unwilling or unable to process exactly what she was seeing seemed to stall out. Her body would not, could not, move. Her thoughts had all evaporated. She stood there like a statue, staring at them like an idiot. The girl on the table tried to cover herself and thats when he must have come to some decision as to how he wanted to handle the situation because he moved. Just not in the direction her thunderstruck mind expected. He thrust into the buxom blond laying in front of him causing her to cry out and fall back to the table. He continued fucking her as if nothing had happened. As if his girlfriend of six months was not watching him fuck another woman. The kicker however was the look on his face. He never looked sorry. If anything his smile grew wider. He knew it was over and so did she and he wasn't going to stop what he was doing to so much as apologize. Thats when the whole situation came into focus and time sped back up. Thats when Meghan ran. She didn't stop running until she was 3 blocks from her home, barely able to walk and far away from that disgusting scene. She had been in such a numbed haze as she walked in her door. She dropped her purse and keys on the little side table beside her door like she did every day and walked straight to her sofa and sat there staring at floor until Rachel arrived some time later. She had come over as soon as she heard something was wrong. Apparently someone had seen her running home distressed and called Rachell when she had not answered her phone. Meghan hadn't even known that she had left her apartment door unlocked until a pair of arms circled her protectively from behind. Shell whispered apologies into her hair and offered to stay with her for a while. There was nothing she could do to fix what had happened to Meghan, but Rachel loved her best friend and would do anything for her, even take a few days off work to help her get through all this. The muted sounds of the city floated in from the open window.

Outside, Rachel mouthed her cigarette in contemplation. She was thinking more than smoking, but old habits die hard and Rachel couldn't help but take up the old habit when she was mad. It made her feel like she was doing something, even if she wasn't. It kept her from doing what she wanted, which was good because if she went after Micheal, she would likely land herself in jail. She just had to keep reminding herself that. Meghan didn't need to deal with all that on top of everything else. That was the down side to living in a big city. Too many witnesses. Her friend deserved better than what that ass hole had done to her. If they'd still been living down south, Micheal wouldn't be so lucky. Rachel had never really cared for Micheal. He just seemed 'wrong' somehow." Now she knew why. He was fake.

Meghan was mumbling in the living room.

"What was that?" Rachel asked from the window.

Meghan looked up at her friend. Rachel was just putting out her cigarette. Must have been thinking out loud… Meghan calmly repeated herself, " I called him a bastard." Then with more force added, "Actually, I called him a Fucking Bastard." Huffing loudly she went on, " Shell, why do I always seem to end up picking the worst guys mankind has to offer? Do I have a sign on my back or something? I mean, I'm not easy. I don't sleep around, I don't go out looking for men in bars or clubs! I try to be careful, responsible ! You know that!" Meghan's voice rose as she spoke, quickly getting upset again. She would get so close to putting it all behind her when the question started eating at her again. Why me? I'm a good person, right? What did i ever do to deserve this?"Six months Shell! We were together for Six freaking months! I never had a clue he could do something like that." Meghan couldn't decide what was worse, the fact that she was sitting there letting that piece of shit effect her that way, or that she would be paying for her gluttonous behavior later at the gym. The bottom of the container loomed before her, laughing at her as the last dregs of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Therapy made they're way to her lips. The irony did not escape her either. Maybe this particular ice cream flavor was created by an emotional woman.

Rachel knew Meghan wasn't actually looking for an answer to her question, no one could answer those questions except Micheal, maybe God, and he wasn't exactly being very forthcoming at the moment."Its not your fault, he was a douche. At least you found out now, it could have been worse."

Meghan knew what her friend was saying. At least she hadn't wasted too much time on him or worse, gotten pregnant. " But I feel like a magnet for bad relationships. "

Rachel nodded, "I know the feeling Meg, getting your heart broke sucks." She said as she crawled back through the window into the apartment. Brushing her jeans off to make sure she didn't track any dirt in from the fire escape she made her way into the small open kitchen and began systematically opening and closing cabinet doors. She knew Meghan kept booze here somewhere, she just had to find it. As she searched the kitchen cabinets she continued absently, " but I really believe theres somebody out there for everyone. You just have to stop looking. "

" Soul mates are not lost car keys or cell phones, Shell. I think its a little more complicated than that ! " She was making an awful lot of noise in the kitchen and Meghan tried to see what her friend was doing but all she could catch from the couch was Rachel's head bobbing up and down behind the counter tops.What the hell is she looking for? "You know you look funny right?" Meghan said loud enough for her friend to hear her. "You look like a gofer. What are you rooting for anyways?"

" Shit at this point… truffles?" Came the reply from under the sink. Her cabinet muffled voice cleared suddenly as she sat back on her heals, " you know, you got enough crap down here to grow a few shrooms right?."

"Just because you cant find what your looking for doesn't mean you have to insult my poor cabinets and organizational skills." Meghan said as she pulled herself off of the couch. Pity Party had gone on long enough. That bastard didn't deserve another minute of her time. He had wasted six months of her life, and now thanks to Ben and Jerry's, she would be spending a few extra hours on the tread-mill. She wouldn't let him waste another minute of her life. Stepping into the kitchen she tossed her empty ice-cream box in the trash and quietly pulled a chair from her table into the kitchen. She finally figured out what Rachel was looking for. It wasn't that hard to figure out. Apparently they had reached the 'lets get piss drunk' part of the night.

So while her friend was waist deep in her bottom cabinets Meghan pulled the chair over to her fridge. While she was tall for a girl, she was still not tall enough to reach the cabinets above the refrigerator. So she used the dining chair to climb on to reach the small storage cabinets that ran above the top of the fridge. Rachel was still hip deep down below somewhere. The sound of her chattering muted by the wooden box she was digging though. Meghan moved aside a few old boxes and a coffee can she used for change to reveal her stash of liqueur. Smiling brightly she pulled the Rum and vodka from the back of the cabinet. Having found her haul, Meghan quietly climbed down and replaced the chair. Never making a sound, she snuck off to her bedroom with the booze. Rachel didn't need to find it just yet. Besides, Rachel had been messing with her for two days with that smoking habit of hers, she deserved a little pay back. Her friend was on a mission to find alcohol and would not give up easily. If Meghan was lucky she would have time to take a shower, get dressed, and be sitting on the couch with a knuckle of rum when her friend finally came out of the kitchen. So with that plan in mind she trotted off to her bedroom to change. She had been laying around in her old sweats long enough.

Rachel continued to empty every cabinet she could find, she knew that bitch had booze here somewhere, she just had to find it. Her friend rarely drank but she always had a bottle of something for those ' fuck it all ' days. Now that Megs was up and coming out of her funk, it was time for phase two of operation 'What was his name again?' They were gonna get hammered. Giving up on the booze for the moment, she turned to ask Meghan where the alcohol was when she noticed her friend wasn't in the living room or kitchen. The faint sounds of a shower running filtered down the hall. Meghan must have decided to get off her ass and take a shower. Well, if Rachel couldn't find the liqueur, she could get the rest of their ritual supplies. Operation 'whats his face' would go off without a hitch tonight by god. Shell made her way across the living room and into the small bathroom in the hall.

Flipping the light switch up, she was temporarily blinded by color. Blue, the only room in the whole damn apartment that Meghan had actually given color to… was the freaking bathroom. Everything in here was blue, not just any old blue either. Freaking bright icy blue, baby blue, royal blue, and freaking neon blue. Yeah thats right, neon blue. Thanks to the stupid little neon Bud light sign Rachel was dumb enough to get for Meghan as a gag for her housewarming gift. It was the sign that was responsible for the little dots in her vision now. Rachel had asked her if she liked blue so much why didn't she have it anywhere else in the house. Meghan had looked confused for a moment but told her, 'she was painting the whole apartment in neutrals, but one night she'd had an amazing dream. She couldn't remember the dream just that blue and how wonderful it made her feel, so she decided to paint the little hall bathroom that color, but she could never find the right shade.

" Blue blue blue. Rachel approached the cabinets under the bathroom vanity with caution, she was half afraid a smurf would jump out of something and attack her. Smurf her up. Or whatever it is smurfs do. It was like getting smacked with color after watching black and white re-runs all day. Looking under the sink she found a bunch of baby blue rags and a medium sized metal bucket that Meghan kept for when she mopped. Taking the bucket, she began gathering up the 'necessary' items. One of the many things Rachel and Meghan had learned growing up in the country was that new life, and new beginnings, grew best from the ashes of the old. It sounded all wise and shit but Rachel figured out that it was really just a good excuse for rednecks to burn shit. But it was fun….particularly fun if the stuff being burned belonged to your ex.

With a cheshire grin she pulled her lighter from her jeans to be sure she still had it, returning it to her pocket she started gathering anything she could find that would remind Meghan of Micheal. Once she was sure she had scavenged all the photos, trinkets and odds and ends she could find in the living room and kitchen she went looking for her tall blond friend. The girls had an exorcism to conduct on the roof and Rachel was determined that her fire-pit free-for-all would help her friend to move on. Plus Rachel was pretty sure her friend had already snagged the booze!


	2. Chapter 2

"Rachel and Meghan were drunkenly hanging off of each other's arms when midnight rolled around. Singing songs and making up a few 'new' lyrics when they couldn't remember the words. They had started drinking hours ago and now thanks to multiple spills resulting in calls of 'alcohol abuse', along with a lot of over imbibing, the night was coming to a close and the liquor was just about gone.

Their faces were flush with color thanks to the cold weather and alcohol. Their little metal fire bucket sat smoldering a few feet away. After burning all her ex's items, cursing his family tree and praying he caught some venereal disease that would make his dick rot off, the party had begun. Laughing and dancing, they sang and joked for hours until they were too drunk to remain standing. So they both leaned against the parapet to rest.

Meghan turned to grab her drink from the wall behind her only to trip over her own foot and fall drunkenly to the ground. Rachel was only able to laugh at her friend as she too slid to the ground, if not with grace, than at least with a modicum of control. Her friend on the other hand was fresh out of it. Eyes squinting in the dark Rachel watched the skinny blond struggle with her own limbs in an effort to sit back up. Giggling madly, Meghan rolled over and collapsed against the wall with as much grace as a sack of potatoes." Damn. that girl was a light weight…

"Once she sat herself up and collected herself as much as a piss drunk person can, she did the first thing a drunk can be expected to do, she pulled a question out of her ass that was guaranteed to make Rachel face palm herself. "Do you remember that cartoon you loved so much as a kid?"

"Which one?"

"The one with the lizard people things, or whatever they were. The space one. What was it called again?.."

Rachel had to think about that one. "They'd been talking for hours. Remembering all the stupid things they used to do back home as kids. Mostly all the trouble they had gotten into as teens. Laughing about how they had always thought that if they could just get out and move away.. Leave that small town life behind.. Then they would be free to do whatever they wanted. Be whoever they wanted to be. But life never turns out how you think it will and she learned the hard way that the grass really isn't always greener on the other side. This new question took her a moment to think about but she remembered, to her horror, what her friend was referring to. " Oh shit!That one? " Meghan's response was a smirk and giggle.

There weren't many TV shows she was allowed to watch back then. Chores came first on their south Georgia farm and when your dad was a Vietnam Vet with PT-SD and a very militant disposition you did not get a lot of free time. "Idle hands are the devils workshop," her father would say. But there was one show she never missed an episode of. It came on early and she could watch it before school so her dad didn't say anything to her as long as her morning chores were done. It was a silly little cartoon like all the other kid shows back then. Cheesy lines and over dramatized action. She had had the biggest crush on one of the characters. She'd been teased mercilessly about it as a child. And her friend was bringing this back up now?! Why? She looked to the blond suddenly and ready to deny it all she took a deep breath. She felt her cheeks heat up from more than the alcohol, it still embarrassed her to this day to admit it at all. "Oh god, that was.. we were.. Jesus I was just a stupid kid back then!" she protested, covering her face with her hands to hide her embarrassment. Peeking between her fingers she asked, " how do you even remember that? Do you store these little events away in that steel trap of a brain just so you can blind side me with embarrassing crap later? "

"Meghan snorted. Not really listening to the rant and continued, " you were so in love with that one guy. He was all you ever talked about! You never even looked at the boys in class because they weren't as 'cool' as he was!" She was laughing hysterically now as she drug Rachel down memory lane. " Jesus! How many times did you get in trouble for drawing him in class?" She sat up suddenly to look into Rachel's face and they both answered together, "like a hundred at least." " I'm pretty sure Mrs. Hendrickson thought something was wrong with you. I'm surprised she never called your father."

"Oh she did, several times. Daddy was always busy though remember?

"Yeah, you would think he was afraid to stop moving."

"Yepp, so he was always out of the house when she called. I would just erase the messages when I got home from school."

"Your dad would have killed you if he had known."

"Guess I'm lucky he never found out," she said, " I got enough scars from that man anyway."

" I'm sorry Rach, I didn't mean to bring That up."

"Its cool." It had been a long time ago and she had moved on.

"Seriously though," Meghan snickered, trying and failing to hold in her laughter, " you were in love with a scaly snake man!"

"OK." Exhaling loudly, Rachel tried to defend herself. " I was 10 years old!.. And he was Not a snake man! So I had a huge crush on a 5 foot lizard person with a surly disposition and a rocket launcher! So what ?! Lots of kids did ! He was fucking Cool!" "Like a sexy grouchy Adonis." You just wanted to be the one person he actually liked. Not to mention his weapons were neat as shit! "Ya know?." Her friend was looking at her like Mrs. Hendrickson now…" Shit, said too much. Damn alcohol. "You know what? I never said that and I'm going to count on you not remembering this conversation tomorrow..Hopefully neither will I. Thats the only reason I'm still talking." A rude snort came from her friend as she cooed, " it was cuuute." Rachel gave her her best disbelieving look, " just drop it. I grew up." Besides, real guys are never like the heroes on television and if there really were honorable people out there, ones who put others before themselves, and treated you with respect and honesty. She had never met them. She doubted anyone ever had and if they were out there, they definitely weren't in this city. Her friends next question however surprised her.

"What if he was real?"

"What?"

"I said, what if he was real?"

"Meghan, normal, straight laced, no nonsense Meghan Chance, who never ever entertained thoughts of whimsy or fantasy was definitely passed being shit-face drunk if they were having this conversation. So, giving her friend a look like she had grown two heads, Rachel entertained for a moment the thought of having her childhood crush come to life. " I wish he was real,"she said.

The whole idea of really meeting a hero was so far fetched it was laughable but the conversation had her inner child sitting up and taking notice. The little girl in her was elated, jumping for joy at the thought of her hero being real. But the grown version of herself coldly sent that little child back to her corner and poured ice all over that fantasy.

"But I'm also glad he isn't real,"she added sullenly.

People would never understand, they just cant accept anyone or anything different from themselves. Hell we barely accept each others differences. "They would freak out and kill him, or worse, torture him by turning him into a science experiment." Sighing loudly she took another swig from her bottle. Continuing dejectedly she said, " besides, I was like what? 10 years old. I would be at least a foot taller than him now. She shook her head in the negative. And I know how that sounds! I'm sure theres a lot of girls out there who don't mind bending down to kiss a guy, but i just cant do it man. Call me picky or whatever but I like my men tall.

"Meghan lost it then, with a burst of laughter she pointed out that, "You don't mind that hes got scales and a tail! or that he might be slimy and cold? Just as long as you don't have to squat to kiss him!?" Rachel rolled her eyes again at her friend, if this kept up they were going to roll away… "He wasn't slimy damn it!" The other girl wasn't listening however as her bawling laughter had degenerated into hiccups.

~Hiccup~ "Shit," Meghan said inbetween her hiccuping laughs "Now I got the,"~hic~ ,"ups."

That was an hour ago...

So the two now sat nursing what was left of the rum. Slumping against the parapet with one nearly empty Captain Morgan bottle perched atop the wall above their heads. To its left, an already empty bottle of vodka. Reaching up and over the rough edge Meghan's dainty hands found and grasped the smooth bottle of amber liquid. Bringing it down to her flushed lips she took a swift gulp of the fiery liquid. Barely feeling the burn as it slid down her throat she swished the contents around inside the bottle and tilted her head to the side to stare at her friend and wondered "Are her eyes closed ? . . . . Are my eyes closed ?" Too drunk to realize the stupidity of that question she tested it anyway. She felt her eyes with her free hand. They felt like they were closed, but she could still see.

So she tried opening her eyes as wide as she could,which only resulted in her eyebrows raising ridiculously high on her face. She probably looked like a Tarsier, those things were creepy looking."What am I doing? I'm either too drunk or not drunk enough…" she decided 'not drunk enough'. Then it hit her! She should drink herself sober! That way, she wouldn't have a hangover! Yeah! That was a good idea. Now that she thought about it Rachel looked like she needed another drink too. Turning to squint at her friend again she thrust the nearly empty bottle into her face and barked out, " here!" Simultaneously belching and whacking Rachel in the nose with the Captain Morgan. She earned a cry of pain from the red head and a retaliatory smack to the back of her head for her trouble. The impact barely registered but feeling the need to complain anyway she whined, "What the hell man! I was just offering you a drink!" Her friend only gave her another shove to the shoulder before she tried to stand back up, wobbling and apparently thinking better of it, she sat back down.

"Rachel knew her friend was two shades to the wind. She had been trying to talk herself into getting up when she heard, "Here," and was suddenly struck in the face with a rum bottle. Her nose still hurt from the bottle. She almost left her up here after that smack. She normally didn't drink rum, it made her pissier than usual. But she caught herself before she got too mad. Neither of them could walk straight anyway and they still needed to get back down the ladder and into the apartment. Smacking Meghan as best she could, she clumsily stood and felt the blood rush to her head with a wave of nausea and promptly sat back down. It seemed like an awful lot of freaking work to get back to the apartment. Maybe they could crash up here. Then she remembered the maintenance man, whats-his-face, came up every morning to check the units or some such crap. Hell for all she knew he could just be having a morning smoke. She would. No judgment here. But she didn't want…damn,.. what-tha-fucks-his-name!?.. to find them passed out on the roof when he did come up. No one had complained about them using the roof occasionally and she didn't want that to change. So they needed to get their shit together and get moving before they passed out. Coming to a decision, she steeled herself against the nausea and dizziness. "OK heifer, get up." she said as she stood unsteadily. Trying to help your piss ass drunk friend stand up and walk when you could barely stand upright yourself was not an easy task. Luckily the nausea stayed away this time. Her friend was in no hurry to get up however as she tried to pull her up she only got alot of whinning from the limp body of her 'friend'that bitch hit me with a liquor bottle! So naturally nudging her friends ass with the toe of her shoe and making her body wiggle like jello was highly entertaining. Hey! she wasn't above drunken stupidity either.

"God Shell, leave me alone!" She whined from the ground where she was trying to sprawl out. "Just leave me here damn it! I'm comfortable". Doubtfull with her body jiggling like that..Rachel ignored her friend and gave up on irritating her up and pulled her up from the tar and gravel covered ground. They stumbled together to the service stairs.

She didn't think she could safely get them down the fire escape ladder at this point so they used the maintenance entrance. Most buildings keep those doors locked but for whatever reason this door never was. Maybe the maintenance guy, whats his face, left it unlocked thinking no one would try coming in through the roof. This apartment wasn't built against any of the other structures around it so no one could jump down from another roof accept maybe a marvel hero, not likely to happen but maybe she should say something to the Manager anyway. But then they might make the roof off limits… Something to think about when she was sober.

"Holding the door open for Megs she stumbled through the hall and down the stairs. It was all she could do to keep them both upright, watching her own feet as she put one in front of the other they finally made it to the apartment door and she shouldered her friend inside. However by the time she got them into the apartment her Meghan was passing out. Just as they stumbled through the living room she felt more than saw her friend shaking her head emphatically and pulling away from her grip. "Don't wanna go to bed!" Meghan said angrily, falling to the floor in the hallway mumbling incoherently as she all but passed out where she landed. …"Great"

"Having dealt with this before, Rachel simply took her friend by the ankles and drug her into her hardly ever got drunk, thats why when she did drink the poor girl ended up like Charly Sheen.

Picking up her ass first since the other end kept slapping at her, Rachel put her in bed upside down. Bottom in the air and face on the floor. Drooling on her arm Meghan looked hilarious. She couldn't help but laugh at her fiend. Making a quick decision,she found her friends tablet and took a pic of her dubious position and set it as her lock screen image so when she woke up it would be the first thing she saw. The second being the inside of the toilet. Hang overs always suck and Megs was gonna be hating life in the morning. Thats why she didn't plan on going to sleep. She grinned to herself while quickly righting her friend in the bed. Tucking her in she made sure everything was alright before heading back up to the roof to clean up.

"The walk up wasn't as bad as the walk down had been. Having a full stomach before they started drinking had helped her to not get quite as drunk as her poor friend who had barely eaten anything for a few days. Thinking again that that girl was going to seriously hate life in the morning. Rachel locked the apartment door from the inside on her way to the stairs. This is New York after all and this neighborhood wasn't exactly known for its low crime rates. So figuring she couldn't be too careful she decided to lock the front door and come back downthe fire escape and through the window. The building was almost vacant accept Meghan, the old lady and the manager... both of whome were old and nearly deaf as it was,so she wasn't worried about waking anyone up. That way she could have another smoke on her way back in. "Good plan."Savvy smoker thinking.

"The sleepiness she had felt earlier had slowly worn off after having to take care of Meghan. So she figured she would hang out on the roof for a bit after she cleaned up. She had always preferred being outside. Back home she practically lived outside. Had even slept on the roof and in the barn a few times. The animals had always seemed like better company to her than people anyway. So finding her curled up on a few hay bales or a cot in her horses stall was not unusual. Living in a city this size..or any size really.. Was hard for her. But you play the hand life deals you the best that you can. So here she was.

"She reached the top of the stairwell and pushed open the metal security door. Its hinges groaned as it opened out onto the dark and empty roof. She let it close slowly behind her trying to ignore the horrible noise it made...like a bad horror flic, she thought and walked across the expanse of roof to the far side and looked down at the empty streets.

It seemed so much darker now than it had been. A rolling rumble in the distance caught her attention. Storm clouds were moving in. The wind had picked up while she was inside and bits of trash and leaves blew across the roof and street below. The wind carried with it the smell of salt and sewage. A normal occurrence this close to the docks but tonight with the thunder and lightning building in the distance, the empty streets and howling wind all seemed almost sinister.

She pulled out her smokes and lit a cigarette, the little box was slightly crushed from being sat on. Three left she noticed. My last three. No more smoking after this. "She had promised Meghan she would quit smoking if Meghan promised to move on from this mess Micheal had made and not look back.

"Her thoughts from earlier that day came back and made her wonder again how people could be so cruel to each other. She understood it was easier for people to ignore the suffering of others around them than it was to go out of their way to help a stranger, or even a friend. It was like that everywhere. Not just in the city, in a little town like hers too. If it wasn't slapping them in the face they were happy to pretend everything was perfectly fine around them. That way they could focus on their own problems. It was too easy. Like cart horses with blinders on people raced through life ignoring all the little things around them. It was just worse in the city, there were just so many people rushing around, after a while she guessed they just became a part of the background. No more than white noise on a radio. Not to everyone though, there were still a few people out there, like her, who couldn't turn a blind eye to someone in need. /span/p

"The sound of a bottle breaking against brick caused her to jump, dropping her lit cigarette and burning her hand in the process she turned quickly, taking in her surroundings and realizing the vacant roof and street below had to mean the sound had come from the alley beside the building. Bringing a hand to her chest and running the other through her now disheveled hair she let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Her heart was still beating out of her chest but knowing she wasn't in any immediate danger its rapid pounding began to slow and her stinging hand reminded her of the smoke she had dropped in her fright. Unfortunately her cigarette hadn't faired as well as she had. In her mad spin of startled shame she had crushed the poor thing into oblivion." Well shit! Who ever the hell was bursting bottles at this time of night had to be drunk or stupid, maybe high. Possibly all three, and they owed her a cigarette.

"Marching her ass over to the streetside wall she looked down ready to tell someone off but stopped short when she realized the area below was vacant….. Figures. Turning on her heel to march across the roof to the other side she decided maybe calling attention to herself immediately wouldn't be the smartest move she made tonight. What if whoever was down there had a gun? Getting shot was so not in her play book for the evening. As much as she wanted to bitch at the asshole she wasn't stupid.

"Deciding to err on the side of caution, and blessing her metabolism for her clearing thoughts, she crept to the wall a little more carefully. Knees bent and hunkered down like a linebacker, she waddled toward the edge. Good thing there weren't any cameras up here. She probably looked like a real dumb ass, crouched the way she was. As if anyone could actually see her up on the roof in the middle of the night when she wasn't even near the edge…..idiot. She blamed the alcohol. …. The universe definitely has a sense of humor. The gods are all sitting on their thrones eating popcorn and enjoying the show.

"The view from the roof down into the alley on this side of the building unfortunately was not unobstructed. Not only were there a few laundry lines hung across the gap from the different apartments, but a few grate balconies from the more expensive units littered the side of the building and of course the fire escape itself made getting any kind of clear look at what was going on below very difficult without risking being seen.

"She could just make out a few shapes moving around toward the back of the alley way. The dim glow of the old halogen lights that lit the rest of the narrow area didn't quite reach the end of the alley and the dumpsters that were lined up there. In the cloying darkness she could just make out three bodies moving around. They looked like men. Two of them were definitely male, and large too. It looked like they were digging through the dumpsters… Maybe they were homeless? Possibly looking for food?…. The third figure was smaller, definitely scrawnier than the first two men. She would have thought he was a woman if he hadn't been standing close enough to the circle of light cast by the security lamp. She could just make out that he was actualy a male and he was pacing in a tight circle, fidgeting anxiously. Near the others,but he kept inching further away. He kept running his hands through his hair and holding his head in an odd way. This guy looked nuts or high, probably both. Hell they were all probably junkies. This dude looked like he was going to split on his friends any second though, he was twitchy as hell and the way he was eye balling the exit just screamed 'runner'. Maybe they weren't even friends. She guessed the big guys might have jumped Twitchy guy and stolen his score. But then what were they digging in the dumpsters for? She wasn't getting any answers from where she was sitting. She decided to get a little closer to the first two thugs, maybe she could over hear what they were saying. She kept a steady gaze below as she scooted along the parapet, hoping not to be seen before she had a better idea as to who they were and what was happening.

She was too damn curious to go home at this point but she couldn't just turn a blind eye. It was all just too damn suspicious to her but she was also not nearly dumb enough to show herself yet. If at all..She was feisty not stupid. Sure, she could call the cops, but what the hell would she say ? " Oh, excuse me officer, there's strange men roaming the alleys! Can you send a squad car to check it out? " Sure, they would tell her what she wanted to hear, but no one would come. Not when there were 'active' crimes to deal with somewhere else. So for now she would watch these weirdos. She didn't have anything better to do anyway and maybe she would hear or see something that would actually help the cops if she needed to call them later. So she made her way along the edge so she could keep them in her sights as she made her way toward the back of the roof. Watching below for any sign that they knew she was there. And thats when everything really went to hell in a hand basket.…

First one of the big guys growled out something to the scrawny scared looking one loud enough for Rachel to hear on the roof. Twitchy dude looked really panicked at whatever the other guy was saying and he started gesturing wildly with his hands and shouting back. Rachel was too panicked herself at the sudden change in their behavior to look away as she quickly scurried along the roof. Suddenly the big guy pulled out a gun and pointed it at Twitchy's head. His eyes shown surprise for a split second of time before the sound of a gun firing completely froze her feet in place and his body dropped limply to the ground. Which gravity thought was a great time to say fuck you to the drunk bitch on the roof because her upper body kept moving forward and in her panic to remain upright.. and quiet, she grasped for the top of the parapet to stop her fall.

Freaking out over having just seen a man gunned down in cold blood for what? Hell she didn't even know. That was a gun! That crazy fucker had a gun! And he killed Twitchy! And the last thing she wanted was for him to know she had just witnessed him shooting and possibly killing him. Though she was pretty sure the skinny guy was dead. She could be in denial if she wanted to though damn it! Twitchy was going to get up any second and somebody would jump out of the shadows behind her screaming, "You've been Punked!" She managed to throw her hands out and catch the low wall in time to stop her fall but her eyes were frozen on the prostrate body in the alley below and her legs suddenly felt like jelly. Twitchy wasn't getting up, dark inky blood was beginning to spread slowly from his body and into the nearby manhole and No One was going to tell her this was all a prank.

She had to get inside.. Now.

She could hear the two remaining thugs yelling at each other. The first thug wasn't very happy with Big Guy for shooting Twitchy, that much was clear, but it didn't look like that was because he actually cared for him. Proven as he kicked Twitchy's corpse and yelled, "Fuck! Da Boss gonna have our heads for dis!" She continued to scurry along the wall, never taking her eyes off the two below. As soon as she was close enough to the roof access door she would make a break for it and call the cops once she was inside and they couldn't hear her. Just as she managed to reach the halfway point though her hands hit the empty liqueur bottles they had left sitting on the wall earlier and they pitched forward. Tilting and rolling quickly away. Fuck! She nearly shouted it aloud as she dove halfway over the edge to catch the bottles, she managwd to grab one by the neck but the other slipped out of her fingers and fell end over end into the alley below. Hitting the buildings crown molding above the first floor and shattering. The sound drawing all eyes straight up at her shocked face. "OH Shit.."Time to call the cops!

Ducking backwards she quickly dug her Phone from her jacket pocket and hit the power button. …oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit… When the device didn't wake up she held the button down to power it on. A second later it still wasn't lighting up...Jesus, you pick now to glitch on me! What the hell? She could hear them now, the killer and his friend, or partner if she heard the boss part right. They were trying to get the lower ladder down so they could check the roof.

Maybe they didn't get a good look at her. She could still get out of this. But it wouldn't be long before they got the bottom ladder of the fire escape down and came up to look for her. Her brain still wasn't working at full capacity either,thank you, Mr. Vodka.

She couldn't seem to get past the 'I have to call the cops' phase. Fiddling with the little Nokia the image of the dead body below came back to her mind. They would kill her if they caught her. She couldn't stay here. Looking closer at her phones still blank screen she realized that it was broken. The glass shattered into a messy black spider web. She must have crushed it on the wall when she dove for the bottles. Finally realizing she was just sitting there waiting to be caught she rolled to her feet and fought the dizziness that caused her to stumble while running toward the maintenance door. It wasn't until she tried the handle for the third time that she realized it was locked! "What the fuck?!" That door was always unlocked! The damn thing was supposed to be broken! What twisted freaking universe had she stumbled into where she was the whipping boy tonight? Could her Karma be that bad? She didn't remember killing any kittens and Meghan's ex was still in one piece so what the hell?

Quickly she looked around for another way out. Spying an old drain pipe on the other side of the roof she made a break for it. If I can climb down that to the ground I can make a run for the warehouse around back and hide there. Going to the front of the building was out, they might have split up and she would be cornered, one of them was definitely coming up the fire escape. No, she had to go down the side of the building, she just hoped the old pipe didn't come loose. She sprinted across the roof toward her only exit but somewhere between the door and the drain pipe her body again reminded her of the massive amounts of booze she dumped into herself earlier and she fell flat on her face.

The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth as she scrambled to get up the stench of cheap cologne filled her nostrils. He was almost on top of her it seemed and with no time left to think she scrambled on her hands and knees as fast as she could across the ground.

She had just thrown her leg over the low wall and leaned out over the pipe when she felt hands grabbing at her clothes. She screamed out curses and scrambled to keep her hold on the pipe as she kicked at her assailant. "Fucker! Lemme Go!" she yelled, as she was drug back onto the roof. His rancid breath burned her nose as he laughed at her, " Fucka huh? Wasn't tha plan but why not? " He made his intentions clear enough by grabbing her crotch from behind as he drug her away from the ledge. She couldn't do much more than flail with his arm around her neck and the other between her legs, she was practically riding his arm in this position.

Giving up on her escape plan and opting for immediate self defense as she felt his hand palm her crotch roughly she stopped thinking and started reacting. When he let go of her privates and his arm came up around her stomach to hold her she grabbed it with both hands. Stomping on his foot to distract him she ducked out of his choke hold and straightened the arm she held out and twisted Hard, causing him to spin around to keep from dislocating it, once she had his arm pinned behind him she quickly kicked his knees out from behind. Her quick thinking gained her the upper hand for only a moment as she realized she was still stuck with no escape and her back to the.. !THWACK! Stars burst from behind her eyes as pain radiated from the back of her skull, she hit the ground hard and groaned into the roof sediment.

Tiny rocks scraped her face and burned her cuts as she gasped for breath. She hadn't noticed goon number 2 had joined the party! God! why couldn't she catch a break tonight? Her long hair stuck to her sweaty face and obscured her view as she rolled over onto her back. He had struck her hard, she was probably lucky to still be conscious after that hit. Her vision was still swimming as she swept the hair back from her eyes, or not lucky as goon one aka Grabby-Hands, began taking off his belt… Oh hell No!Think fast!

"The cops will be here any minute!" she yelled at them from the ground, "I already called them!" Grabby stopped undressing and Goon two took a look at her broken phone laying nearby and smirked, "I don't think so sugar, not wit dat ya didn't." He gestured to the device with his head as he unholstered his gun and aimed at her chest. "But just in case yas IS right, we gotta make sure ya aint gonna be able ta tell da cops nothin. We got us a few minutes ta have a little fun doh before we gotta run.." She felt his gaze travel from her toes up to her chest as he used his firearm to trace her figure in the air. Goon two took that as the go ahead to continue and came toward her with a disgusting leer. Palming himself through his pants he smiled, "daddy's got somethin for ya doll, if ya behave ill make sure ya like it." Oh she was going to be sick.

Grabby-Hands caught her by the legs and pulled her to him. Catching both her wrists in one hand he held her down while he worked at her zipper with his other. She screamed obscenities as she kicked and bit as much as she could with her hands bound, trying despirately to get away. But this guy was huge and nothing she did seemed to deter him. His friend with the gun just laughed as she tried miserably to fight him off. She would be damned if she made it easy for them.

The hell if she would give up, she fought him every inch of the way, finally landing a solid hit when she bit his ear causing him to draw back she pulled her leg up and kneed him in the face. The pain in her knee was worth it as a gush of blood that wasn't her own sprayed her white t-shirt and he roared in pain.Woo-Hoo! Score one for me ass hole! That was definitely a broken nose. "You Fuckin' Bitch!" he spit out angrily!

Unimaginable pain burst from her cheek as he slapped her. The force of the blow split her lip and blurred her vision. Not missing a beat he drew back his arm and punched her in the stomach, knocking what little air she had out and causing her to choke for breath. Her own blood and spit dripped from her face as she coughed and gasp for air, but he wasn't done, and when his meaty fist made contact with the side of her head she couldn't fight the blackness that ate at her vision. The last thing she saw before cold unconsciousness claimed her was the gunmans horrified face over her attackers shoulder. She could only laugh morbidly to herself as she thought maybe they had fucked her face up so bad that they wouldn't want her anymore.' Whatever happened now, at least she wouldn't be awake to suffer through it.

She must have serious brain damage she thought as the light faded away...Cause that sure looked like a giant green man launching her attacker across the roof and into the gunman...


	3. Chapter 3

Marcus loved it when life tossed him little cookies like this. It didn't happen often. You never really know when a bad night will look up, but when it does... You should take advantage of it. The situation was still fubar, that much hadn't changed. The skinny ass little punk in the alley had fucked them all over good this time. He had to smile a little, just knowing that the little moron wouldn't be fucking up anything else, ever. He'd been itching to put a hole in that punks head for months now.

In retrospect though, he probably should have kept his cool a little better and not shot the idiot, now there was a body to deal with, but damn! How many times had that asshole caused trouble for his crew? Too damn many. Every time they turned around the grease stain was getting them in trouble. The punk was trippin more than he was sober, and they had covered for him too many damn times. Not out of any respect for the little dick weed, but because if they hadn't, the boss would have punished them all for his stupidity. So they tried to deal with his ass themselves. Unfortunately threatening to beat the shit out of him hadn't worked. Then actually beating the shit out of him hadn't worked either. So... C'est la vie.

It was the kids own fault he was dead. Marcus knew he should have killed him the first time he caught him pullin a stunt like this, but he was soft back then. Had felt bad for the kid. Jimmy was a runaway, he had street smarts and was a hell of a pick pocket, which is what got him into the organization in the first place. But he was always looking for approval from someone else. Marcus knew what that was like and had even tried to take the twerp under his wing, so to speak. Had offered the kid his first blunt, how was he supposed to know he was going to amp up?. It wasn't his fault if the idiot got himself hooked on the heavier stuff. That's when he gave up on the punk.

Sure, Marcus had his own list of vices, just like everyone else. You don't get into the city's dark and devious underbelly of sin and success without them. Unless you were running the shit. Which he acknowledged he was not. A fact that pissed him the hell off. Especially on a night like tonight. But you also learned that the heavy users never got anywhere, except maybe a ditch or gutter.

The boss was going to kill them for this.

They were supposed to hook up with some suit near the docks and make a trade. The douche had some case of god only knew what that the boss wanted. Nothing new really, and everything went down smooth like. Until they decided they had some time before they had to be back and could stop off for a few drinks. Yeah, he knew it was stupid. They should have taken the package straight back to tha boss. The noisy raucous bar atmosphere was exactly the kind of distracting setting a thief like Jimmy needed to nab the case from him and JoJo and sneak off. The little pill head was probably hoping it was full of high. He had that sweaty, wild look again so he was more than likely jonesing.

It was a good thing Jo caught him running from the bathroom and ran out of the bar after him. While he chased Jimmy down, Marcus went to see if the idiot had left the case in the bathroom. It was a good thing he did too cause it was just sitting on top of one of the the toilets waiting to be grabbed. He didn't know why Jimmy had left it there and didn't have time to look inside it to see if the punk had stolen anything. He just grabbed the case and took off after the two.

They chased Jimmy's ass down, but when they found him the kid was spazzing out bad, sweating and shaking, talking to himself and mumbling, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was drooling like a dog. Looked like he got a hold of bad acid or something. That's when they looked in the case realized what had happened. 20 syringes sat all tucked into their own little foam depressions. Or their should have been. One was missing, and they hadn't had to ask why. They had both launched into the idiot with questions. They had to find out what Jimmy did with the empty syringe. God only knew what that idiot had pumped into himself.

The liquid was clear, if they could find the missing syringe they might be able to fill it with water and hope by the time the boss found out they had a good cover. A lie maybe, or just split the city. Take off for the west coast. He had always wanted to get a tan..Cali sounded good right then.

But first they had to find the needle, which ment they had to get the idiot to stop shaking and muttering to himself long enough to tell them where it was. An exercise in patience which neither he nor Jo had an abundance of.

They drug him into the first alley they came to, just in case. The streets in this neighborhood were empty at this hour and snitches weren't a big problem, but still, best to keep it safe. This close to the docks the locals knew to keep quiet but you never could be too careful. So they drug him down the alley away from the street lights and took turns questioning the dumb ass. After Jo lost his cool and broke a bottle with Jimmy's face they knew they wouldn't get anything out of him. It wasn't until Jimmy started to talk all crazy and act like he was going to split again, that Marcus decided he'd had enough and put a bullet in his head.

Then that woman had dropped the bottle from the roof and added another facet of fucked up'edness to the already fucked up night. She had to be dealt with, couldn't have a witness running around now could they. That didn't mean they couldn't have a little fun with her first though. So now he was on the roof of this dinky little apartment building waiting for his turn at life's little cookie. She was a good lookin girl too, long silky hair and legs that went on and on, a nice rack too. He admired the swell of her breasts as she fought with Jo, he loved a spirited woman. She was gonna be a fighter, he was going to enjoy this. Then they could dump her body with Jimmy's down at the docks and be done with it.

That is if Jo would stop fucking around and get to it. The idiot almost had her pants down too when he pulled back too far and gave her room to pull her leg up and knee him in the face. Dumb ass. JoJo had a bad temper on a good day, and no respect for women, ever. So it wasn't a surprise when he started whaling on her. Hope that bitch enjoyed that little victory, because she wouldn't get another one. His fists rained down on her and the second time he nailed her in the head she was out, her body went limp and Jo snarled at her before he doubled his efforts to undress her now unresisting form.

Marcus however was just disappointed, so much for having his turn at her, he couldn't stand it when they passed out like that. It was too much like fucking a corpse. Their begging and whimpering always got him off more than anything. He loved feeling that power over someone else. His whole life he had answered to others, even now he had a sadistic boss that loved to push him around. The feeling of holding so much power over someone else was like the most powerful drug to him and JoJo had just made his high impossible. He was about to tell the fucker off for it too when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

He'd been on the streets a long time. Long enough to know that you always trust your instincts and right now his were screaming at him to get the fuck out of there. It suddenly seemed unnaturally quiet on that roof. The wind blew trash across the ground and a car horn honked in the distance but nothing moved. Something was there, he could feel it. As he took a retreating step back from Jo and the woman a smooth voice, dark and refined had his joints freezing and heart pumping double time.

"Well , well... Look at what we have here boys."

Only one being could put that much silk and steel into a word. Chills ran up his spine as the lights seemed to dim around him. Shit, not them.. Jo stopped trying to undress the girl and looked around but made no move to get away from her. He probably thought he could use her as a shield. Those freaks were soft, always tryin to help people. They didn't get it, they were fighting a loosing battle, for every person they saved ten more took their place. But ya had to hand it to em, them boys never gave up. Even if they did have a habit of interfearin with his business. Ya had to admire good work ethic. Even in the underworld. He spun around, trying to find the source of the voice but it seemed to be coming from everywhere. He felt the air move behind him and a dark chuckle in his ear had him spinning around and firing a shot off into the dark. More dark chuckles from everywhere and the eery sound of weapons being manipulated in the dark had him sweating, he could feel the tiny droplets as they beaded on his brow and trailed down his back. These assholes were fucking with them now.

"Oh Look! New toys bros! and this one even comes with accessories! "

That surfer voice had him about pissing his pants when he realized it was talking about him. Chills crawled up his spine as the wind blew more debris around his feet, he barely caught the movement above the maintenance door but he was sure he had seen it. He tried harder to see into the dark around him, he heard a rustle again behind him and spun to take aim when something hard struck his hand. The sound of breaking bones was drowned out by his bellow of agony as the gun was knocked across the roof. He grasped his wrist and started sucking in air to control the pain in his hand, it felt like the bones were crushed, and he never even saw that mother fucker coming. He was scared but he wouldn't let them know it. He was through playing games. Desperate to mask his pain and fear he called out angrily, " Where the hell are you freaks? Huh? Just gonna hide in the dark like pussies? Or we gonna do this?"

"Attacking an innocent unarmed woman with two to one odds? Doesn't that make you the coward?"

Again the voice came from all around, this time it was the first voice again. He was spinning in circles trying to spot them when the air suddenly whooshed out of him, he was struck by Jo's large body as it flew through the air and they were both hurtling across the roof. Landing in a heap some feet away he struggled to catch his breath as Jo scrambled to untangle himself from Marcus. Jo was zipping up his pants as he rolled to his feet and started talking shit, "What tha fuck you freaks want huh?" he asked into the darkness around them. "Were just showin tha lady a good time. She was askin for it! Cant you ass holes take a night off?"

"I seriously doubt she asked to be beaten to within an inch of her life."

" Maybe she likes it rough! Whats it matta to you anyways?" We gotta split like five minutes ago..Marcus gave Jo the signal to back toward the fire escape. "Go get laid or somethin!" he yelled out before adopting a look of mock surprise, "Ohhh wait, dats right... you freaks can't get no pussy huh? Da Girlz prolly take one look atcha ugly green asses and run away screamin !"

Marcus knew Jo was gonna cross the line any minute and that hulking red masked monster was going to rip his head off. While Jo taunted the blue one he scanned the area for his gun and realized it and the girl were gone. Only a puddle of blood where her head had been was left to show she had ever been there. Fuck this shit, Jo was on his own if he couldn't shut the fuck up. Marcus had no desire to be those ass holes stress ball. If Jo wanted to piss them off then Jo could deal with the aftermath.

Raph was about to loose his shit! It took everything he had in him to keep hidden while Donny tried to patch up the girls head. That didn't mean he could keep his trap shut though. "Didn't look like she was enjoyin lookin at yah ugly mug eitha, Fabio," Raph spat out angrily. "Besides, compared ta you an yah friend, I'll look like a regula prince charmin." Not that he actually believed that but hey. Oh, he wanted to pound that asshole. It felt good when his fist connected with the face of the one trying to rape the girl. Sending him flying into his friend was a bonus. He wanted to do more but Leo was bein all goody goody again.

"Enough, Raph." Leo leapt down to the roof across from Huns goons and scowled threateningly. Slowly pulling himself to his full height he made a show of slowly unsheathing his katana, the glint of fear in their eyes was unmistakable. Lowering his voice, he growled, "At least, when they scream at us, they are free to run away."

"We need to hurry Leo, she's still bleeding." Donny's voice whispered worriedly over the comm. Leo nodded imperceptibly before continuing, " the two of you will not be so lucky."

"I ain't afraid a you freaks!"Jo spat out, trying to look brave, he stood a little taller. "Come get some!"

"If that's how you want to play then fine, my associate here was becoming rather bored, your just the sort of sport he was looking for." choosing to ignore the mouthy one Leo turned to the one who had held the gun. "We need answers, and you are going to give them to us. Huns up to something. What is it?"

Marcus knew the blue one was giving them a rare chance here. Normally they would already be unconscious and tied up for the cops. JoJo couldn't shut the fuck up however, " Fuck You motherfucker, we aint gonna tell yas shit! Unless ya gonna hand ova that sweet piece ya took from me so I can tap it first," he said while grabbing his crotch. Raph launched across the roof and had him dangling over the edge so fast Marcus fell on his ass. He didn't even see where the big guy had come from, he was just suddenly There.

He was pissed! Raph had run into this filth before. Trussed him up nice and tight for tha cops and the little fuckin despot always ended up back on the streets. "Look here you disgustin piece a trash," he said as he shook him,"I don't know what your fascination is with your dick, and I don't care, but ya betta start showin some respect ta my brotha!" Raph held him by the neck with one hand while pointing a sai in his face with the other as the man dangled forty feet in the air. Jo nodded emphatically to Raph, who then tossed him none too gently back onto the roof by his friend to choke in air.

"Now," Leo addressed Marcus, he seemed to be the brains of the outfit, maybe he could get some answers out of him. "Who is responsible for the bodies that keep turning up by the dump?" The thug laughed at that and raised a brow inquiringly,"You serious? You know how many gangs use that place ta dump their 'trash'? How tha hell am I supposed to know?"

"You know exactly which ones!" Leos voice rose as his calm façade fell."The ones being experimented on! Kidnapped, tortured, and killed!" Leo took a breath, trying to calm himself, he needed clarity here, not rage, Raph had that covered already. " Those people were innocent Marcus, not that the word holds much meaning for you but it does to us. They didn't deserve what was done to them. Just tell me what you know. Who is doing this? What are they trying to achieve?"

Marcus knew what bodies the freak was talking about. Everyone did. Nobody ever talked about it though, not without goin missin themselves. He was in enough trouble tonight as it was. Glad he stashed that case in the alley too, didn't need the 'Justice League' here getting their green hands on that stuff. He still had to figure out what to do about that shit too. No way was he saying shit about them bodies though. Fuck That!

Leo was getting to the end of his patience, he just knew this guy knew something but he didn't have all night to question him, it was getting pretty obvious no one was talking about whatever was going on, they had searched for answers, interrogating gang members and foot soldiers alike for weeks now. No one seemed to know anything. Raph was just as set on finding the killer as he was. Leo had asked him to do this his way, but time was running out. Maybe it was time they did it Raph's way. Donny was right, he had to hurry, the girl was hurt and needed medical attention. His little brothers couldn't handle what he had a feeling needed to be done.

Leo glanced back at them, the humans couldn't see them in the dark but he had no such problems in the dark. Mikey was holding the girl in his arms, waiting for Leo's command while Donny worked on patching her up. Raph knelt impatiently near by, burning holes in the thugs heads with his eyes. If looks could kill...

"Don, Mike, Go. See to the girl. Raph and I got this."

"You sure bro?" Mikey was reluctant to leave, Leo knew his little brother was worried about him. All the recent deaths were weighing on him. On them all. He needed to get to the bottom of this before anyone else was hurt and he didn't want Mikey or Donny to look at him like a monster tomorrow. It was bad enough he had snapped at Mikey earlier. "Yeah Mikey," Leo sighed, "go home, we got this and Don needs you to help with the girl." Mikey held his gaze for a moment before giving a curt nod and he and Donny were gone, taking the injured young woman with them.

Raph gave Leo a sly grin,"Tired ah pussy footin around bro? I can get these assholes to talk, just gimme tha word." He pounded his fist into his other hand suggestively. Leo hated that he had to lower himself to the thugs level to get information but he was honestly out of time, and his brother had a point. Plus if Donny's calculations were right, and they always were, three more bodies would turn up within the next 72 hours. He hadn't slept in days, the insomnia was wearing his patience thin. Something had to give soon. Donny was positive Hun was at the bottom of it. Someone was experimenting with mutagen again. Or something like it if the shape the bodies were in were any indication. He had stopped asking 'Why?' years ago. Their enemy's were simply insane and insane people do things that don't make sense. So, 'Why are they doing this?' wasn't the operative question anymore, it was simply, 'How do we stop it?'

Marcus and his buddy thought they were slick, sneaking off while Leo was giving his brothers their orders. They were well aware of the thugs actions. He could hear them making their way down the fire escape. Time was up, he had to stop this before anyone else was killed and those two were members of Huns inner circle. Raph caught his arm as he turned to pursue their runaways. "Leo," he said, still holding the arm he had caught he gave his brother a hard look. He looked almost shocked, "I was just kiddin man. You serious? We really gonna do this?" Leo looked exhausted to Raph, this was more his speed, not his brothers. Leo had never agreed with Raph's brute strength tactics. "I mean, I aint got a problem wit crackin a few skulls to get what we need, but that's not your style bro. That's not you... You sure your alright?" Raph dropped his hard accent so his big brother would know he was serious. He didn't want Leo crossing a line he couldn't come back from, he was hard enough on himself as it was. But they both knew this had to be done.

Hell Leo didn't want to cross a line he couldn't come back from either. Maybe he should just let Raph do it alone, he knew his brother could handle catching the two and doing whatever needed to be done but Leo just couldn't do it. He couldn't make Raph shoulder that alone, even if the hot head was ok with it, he wasn't. What kind of leader/brother would he be if he left Raph to do the dirty work alone? Not an honorable one, that was for sure. So, covering the hand Raph still had on his arm with his own three fingered one he gave his brother a nod of acceptance. No words needed to be said, they both knew they would be implementing their darker ninjutsu training tonight. Skills their father had hoped they would never have to use but had taught them none the less. Hopefully Father wasn't watching them now. Leo was pretty certain he wouldn't approve.

They leapt from the roof together, moving as one in a rhythm of power and grace only achieved from years of training and a deep trust in each other. They would hunt down Huns men, and they would get the answers they sought. It would be their trust in each other they would need most now, Leo hoped above all his actions tonight would not cost him that. His brothers trust, and respect. Then there was the girl to be dealt with. Who was she? A hapless victim... or something more? Maybe she wasn't as innocent ass he appeared. He would find out soon enough. But first, Marcus and his girlfriend Jo had some talking to do...

Donny sat perched on the edge of his chair at his desk, looking over his slides once again. Something about the cellular structure of the latest victims was bothering him... he just wasn't sure what..

"Don."

He switched out the little glass plates and wiped the sweat from his forehead. After adjusting his glasses he looked over the new one. If he could have gotten samples from the first victims he would have a better comparison to work with..

"Donny."

It was obvious whoever had these people had attempted to alter them, genetically. The chains were unstable though, not that mutagen wasn't unstable to begin with but this wasn't the work of any mutagen he was familiar with, he needed a ..

" Donatello !" Mikey's voice suddenly blast into his ear! Startled from his musings Donny toppled out of his chair and the slide he was working on fell to the floor and shattered. "God Dammit Mikey!"

"Sorry Bro! but I totally called your name like three times dude. You were in La La land." Mikey chuckled and waved a slice of pizza in dons face. "Breakfast time!"

"Mikey, you do realize pizza is not a breakfast food right?" Don raised an eye ridge at his brother but Mikey just looked confused.."Never mind, just get out so I can clean this mess up... again."

Grabbing the hand broom and dust pan he shooed Mikey out and cleaned up the mess of broken glass and sanitized the area. Looking back at the girl sleeping on his cot he decided to check on his new patient. Not that he hadn't been keeping a constant watch on her as it was... but you could never be too safe or thorough. Not like he had a nurse to help him... which reminded him.. Why Leo sent Mikey to hep was a mystery he planned on solving as soon as they got back to the lair. Leo was going to get an ear full.

The girl was lying on the cot he kept in the lab for those late nights when he just couldn't make it to his room. Those goons had done a real number on her. It could have been worse, he admitted. She definitely had a concussion and was going to be in pain when she woke up. Her arms alone were covered in contusions and abrasions. He could only imagine how the rest of her looked, the knee she used to bust her attackers nose was swollen but otherwise undamaged, well as far as he could tell with her clothes on. He couldn't bring himself to undress her without permission. Had she been grievously injured and in need of more care he would have had no choice of course but as far as he could tell there was no need to have her undress until she awoke, and agreed to let him examine her further. Hopefully she wouldn't freak out... Right.

He changed out the ice pack he had on top of her knee with a new one and made sure she was still stable. Her blood pressure and pulse were a bit high but not dangerously, not abnormal considering what she had been through. So he gave her another dose of acetaminophen for the pain. He was reluctant to give her anything else without speaking to her first and knowing what she may be allergic to. He should have taken her to a hospital he admitted. Leo should have been more specific about what he wanted done with the girl. He did say take care of her... so that's what Donny was doing.

He found himself standing there over her a little longer than was necessary, clinically speaking. But he couldn't seem to walk away, it wasn't often they got to be this close to humans. He had tried to treat her as quickly and efficiently as possible on the roof, trying not to notice how soft she was. But now... He couldn't deny she was pretty. Even damaged as she was. Her cheek cut and bruised from the goons fists and her right eye sported a ring of purple. The swelling had finally begun to recede. He reached out before he could stop himself and gently ran his fingers through her hair. He had always wanted to know what a woman's hair felt like. He wasn't disappointed either. It was soft as silk in his calloused fingers and slid through his digits like water. Beautiful, so many different colors and so different than anything he had felt before. He had honestly thought it would feel like sensei's fur, but it wasn't. He had always wondered what the difference was. Its one thing to read bout something, and quite another to experience it yourself. He was curious by nature but no way could he ask April to let him do this, it would probably creep her out. Not that feeling up a girl with a concussion wasn't creepy, Donatello, he reminded himself, pulling away quickly and looking around to make sure Mikey wasn't spying on him.

Right on que Mikey came strolling back in with a slice in his mouth. "Sheroushly jshude shoo need choo each." Donny looked to the ceiling," why am I being punished?" Mikey ignored him as usual and swallowed his piece of pizza and went straight toward the girl. "No no no!" Donny intercepted, "I told you to stay out, shes hurt and doesn't need you 'accidentally' making it worse."

"Dude seriously, chillax. I'm just lookin. See!" He put his hands behind his back and tried to look innocent. Donny knew better.. no such thing as an innocent Mikey. "Out shell for brains!" One look at the staff Donny suddenly had pointed in his direction and Mikey put his arms up in surrender, He could get pretty mean with that stick when it came to stuff in his lab...pretty girls included apparently, backing towards the door Mikey conceded, "Ok ok im going..." Just as he got to through the frame though his knowing smile grew and had Donny's stomach dropping. Mikey confirmed his fears from earlier, "Does it feel as soft as she looks?" He asked before bolting, cackling all the way back to where ever the hell he came from. Donny stared at the empty door way before slamming it shut and locking it. Face palming all he could think was, Fuck.


	4. Chapter 4

Rachel had been wandering in the white mist for what felt like forever..

It was bright here and she had to squint her eyes to be able to see. Not that it helped much.

Her brain felt foggy, full of cotton, and completely useless. She kept trying to remember what had happened, how she got here, but her memory was full of holes. Blank spaces where memories should have been sat taunting her. Teasing her with tiny snippets of things that made no sense, and as quick as one would form, it was gone, leaving her lost and confused.

She also felt cold, which she thought was strange. As bright as it was here you would think it would be hot. She could even feel the light on her skin like a heavy weight, but it did not penetrate the chill she could feel inside. The mist and fog were thick and cloying, almost suffocating, she should have been sweating, but instead she was chilled to the bone. The cotton candy swirls of icy air tickled her cheeks and caressed her bare neck, giving her more goosebumps.

She tried rubbing her hands on her arms to produce some frictional heat but it didn't help. She stayed cold. And that light...Where the hell was it coming from? As she looked around again and again a thousand unanswered questions assaulted her mind. Each one clamoring for her attention. Fighting to be taken notice of. Then the mist would thicken again, leaving her wondering what she had even been thinking. This place was starting to piss her right the hell off.

It felt like she'd been walking forever, the light however never seemed to have dimmed or faded in any way. It was still as bright now as it had been hours ago. Or was it minutes? It should have been dark by now, and that worried her for reasons she could not understand. Not quite sure if it was a fear of the dark, or of what was in it, she both wondered at its absence and prayed to never find out. The scared little girl inside her however pointed out the obvious, "bad things always come for us in the dark."

A flash of memory hit her then. She saw stars, billions of them twinkling behind dark and swollen clouds. An approaching storm rumbled in the distance and she could smell ozone in the air. The night had been cold, the chilly predawn air swept over the roof and around her as she shivered. A flash of lighting suddenly blinds her. The vision continues as something else takes shape before her. She's no longer standing on the roof, staring at the night sky but forced onto her back under the weight of something foul.

Oily black strands of stringy hair frame a face of evil. His leering smile is full of crooked teeth, rotted by drugs his fetid breath causes bile to rise in her throat as he pants above her. He licks her face, leaving a trail of spittle along her cheek he smiles down at her again with that rotten smile before a sharp blinding pain erupts in her stomach.

The vividness of the memory was shocking. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe, it was too much and she collapsed to her knees. Sucking in ragged breaths she forced her heart to slowly stop beating out of her chest and to calm so she could think. That was not, something she wanted to revisit but the memory was wrong. Twisted and warped, it felt like a soup of bad dreams. She hadn't been a woman when she was attacked all those years ago, and it certainly wasn't on a rooftop in the city. She had left that monster behind with all the others. There was something she was missing, something her brain was trying to tell her.

A sudden flash of a meaty fist sailing toward her laughing and bloodied face had her choking on air once agian. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa...

Then a throbbing pain below her eye had her reaching for her face in confusion. Her fingers ghosted over the swollen tissue and she winced in pain. Shocked and slightly afraid of what was happening but determined to get some answers, she tried piecing her scattered memory fragments back together.

What the hell had happened to her? Why couldn't she remember?

OK. She knew it had been dark, she didn't know how she knew, but she was certain it had been night time before she got stuck in this..place. She faintly remembered laughing at something.. She wasn't alone either. Someone else was with her...But someone safe, she had felt safe with her. HER! She was blue and gold.. No, thats not right. She wasn't with a transformer for Christ's sake. They had eyes..yes? ..Duh dumb ass. !But they were blue eyes! Ahaa! OK... God, think Rachel!..

'What's the gold then? um um um gold is .. shiny!' squinting she tried to see if that brought up any memory..Nope no luck, 'that's not it.'

'Bright! Gold is bright!' Her excitement turned sour. ' Like this fucking light!' she snarled to herself, 'Damn it, not it either..'

OK.

Gold, yellow.

Yellow.. blonde?

Blonde !

blonde?...Hair!

Blonde hair... 

Who has blonde hair?

...?... ! ! !

Meghan! She has blonde hair!

YES!

So... I was with Meghan... 'Did that bitch kill me? 

Oh boy, if she did, Rachel was gonna haunt her ass for ever! ... Just as soon as she figured out how to get the hell out of here..

Where ever the hell here was.'

An absurd thought hit her. 'HOLY SHIT! what if she Really was dead?.. What if this was Heaven?' She looked again at the vast nothingness around her. This time a little more surreptitiously.

Oh God she hoped not. It was way too fucking cold and boring here. Plus, she still really wanted that cigarette.. Pretty sure that was a no no in Heaven. Oh man that would totally suck! Nic'ing for eternity.. 

Only two places could be that cruel... and this definitely wasn't Meghan's apartment.

That left only one other possibility.

'I'm in Hell' ...'I've died and gone to hell.'

Now in a sad and pathetic kinda way, it kinda made sense.

OK, enough fucking around. Surely she wasn't in Hell, she wasn't that bad right? ...Frowning at the question and its possible answers she shook her head, and tried once again to clear the fog from her memory. Something happened to get her here, now what the hell was it?

She and Meghan had been laughing about something, they were both drunk. She took Meghan to bed. She remembered that much... but what happened after that?

As if sensing her building clarity and acting in direct opposition to it the fog around began to thicken and swirl.

Oh she Hated this Fucking white out! She swatted at the mist around her irritably, trying to wave it away, growling and cussing at the obnoxious cloud. But it only clung to her more tightly.

The thick smoky air was becoming dense again, it settled and rose again and again before whirling up all around her. Like water it ebbed and flowed. Teasing her senses with it's touch, tickling and chilling her, cooing to her like a mother to her child, stealing her thoughts and hushing her turbulent mind. She kept trying to wave it away but it just came right back in again. It was too thick to see through, the whiteout was so complete, but it didn't hinder her movement so she kept walking. This had to end somewhere, if she could escape the fog before it stole everything she could remember again, she just knew it.

The ground began to change. No longer flat, it began to have a texture and grade. Kind of squishy and crunchy.. Like an orchard in the fall. She remembered the orchards on her father's farm and a chill ran up her spine.

God, she was tired of thinking! She was tired of walking. She was tired of the fog and the memories and the cold and she really really just wanted a fucking cigarette. Actually, she thought to herself, she would promise to quit smoking forever if someone would just get her out of here.

Rachel screamed at the tops of her lungs for someone to help her. Over and over into the fog she called out for someone, anyone, until her ears rang, and her head was full of the sound of her own voice, but nothing made it through the suffocating mist around her. It swallowed up and choked out everything! Including every sound, every shadow, it probably wasn't even light...it probably swallowed up the light too. That's why it's so bright. Holy shit, it ate the God damn light!

Oh god, that was stupid. ...She was going crazy!

"I cant take this anymore!"she screamed into the nothingness. Tears began to flow down her face and she fell to her knees, begging for answers that would not come. "Why am I here!? Please, just let me go home!" Did she even have a home..She couldn't remember. "You know what? I don't even care, anywhere has to be better than here!" Here there was just the nothingness. There had to be a way out. Not one to give up, even if she was prone to occasional melt downs, she turned her fear and desperation into anger and drive.

Rachel stood again, guessed at the direction she had been running in before and took off once more. One foot in front of the other she ran, setting a frenzied pace, she pushed herself to her limit. It was strange, she thought, that she wasn't feeling fatigued. No matter how long she ran, her muscles never ached, and she never became short of breath.

The mist suddenly began to give way and her heart jumped into her throat at the prospect of escape, she forced her legs to go faster. She could just barely see something forming ahead beyond the fog, Cerberus himself would be a welcome sight at this point, anything but the swirling white fog. Anything!, she thought desperately! 

Until the ground began to give way below her. Stumbling, she Lurched forward, and started to fall. The soil below suddenly became viscous and gobbled down her feet, sucking her in. She tumbled forward, arms pin-wheeling through the air to land on her hands and knees, arms instantly sinking up to her elbows in the muddy muck rising around her. Her thighs had all but disappeared as well. 'Oh no,' ..' no no no'.

Quicksand. This wasn't what she had fucking meant when she said Anything! Just like her life. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.. 

Perfect.

There was nothing to grab a hold of either. Nothing to pull herself free with. Just the muck and fog. She tried to pull her hands up. If she could flatten herself out on top, maybe she could work her way across the mud. She leveraged herself as best she could, using her right side to pull her left arm free but as soon as her hand started to come loose she felt something tighten around her wrist and a strong tug from beneath the muck. Fear shot through her veins turning her blood to ice. Something was grabbing her wrists, trying to pull her down.

Something was in here with her! And it was going to drown her! "Holy Shit!"

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Thrashing wildly she felt her arms slip free from the gritty hands below and she threw herself backwards. Imediately rolling to her side she scrambled for purchase as the hands took hold of her ankles and started pulling her down again. "Let me fucking go!" She kicked out uselessly, only sinking herself down deeper. The mud was restricting her movements, she couldn't fight it and the more she tried, the faster she sunk. Oddly enough, as the mud reached her throat, she thought of Meghan, and she finally remembered what they had been laughing about on that roof. Her last thoughts were of her childhood hero. And that whatever was pulling her down, had better kill her quickly. Because if she got the chance, she was taking it out with her. Gasping for one last breath, she closed her eyes and let the hands pull her under.

______________________________________________ 

Rooftop, SoHo

The rain was coming down in sheets now. Thunder rumbled overhead as the bruised looking clouds swirled above the city, accented by webs of lightning, the thunderheads looked close enough to touch. Rooftops in New York were never really the best place to stand during a thunderstorm. The high winds could get pretty rough, and lightning was always a bitch.

He had walked away from some pretty unbelievable shit in his life but Raph was fairly certain a billion volts of electricity would fry even his stubborn ass.

They hadn't had a choice though, the down pour hit moments after Mikey and Donny took off with the girl and the sewers on this end were now flooded with rain water. When your a seven foot tall, walkin, talkin turtle, there aint a lot a travel options, sadly enough. So roof tops it was.

Once they were done with.. well, with what they came to do, they had to disappear pretty fast. So here they were, hidden in the shadow of a water tower above the old textile mill on the south side a few miles from the apartment they followed Hun's men from.

Raphael had to admit, the rain felt good on his skin. It was clean, and it stung just enough to keep him grounded. He needed that control right now. He wondered when it was the rolls had switched. When did he start worrying about his older brothers impulsive actions instead of the other way around?

Raph rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, a habit he had formed, whenever he was anxious... or nervous, it helped him think. The stiffness though was a reminder of his had cost him in his youth. He was reminded of his foolishness from years ago as the muscles and sinews stretched and pulled with his movements. It wasn't normally so bad, but he had learned after some time that storms made the ache much worse. It wasn't debilitating, just irritating, much like Mikey.

As the rain continued to come down in sheets around them he stood in silence. Not that he was usually a big talker anyway, but this time he regretted that about himself. He wasn't very good with words. 'Smart ass', he was fluent in, but actual meaningful conversation... not so much.

It was times like this he wished he had Leo's ability to read people. His older brother always seemed to know what needed to be said. That little talent would have been useful right about now, 'cause Raph was drawing a blank as to what exactly he should say.

He'd seen some shit in his day, like really fucked up shit... But watching his brother clean his katana this time was really giving him the heebie jeebies.

It wasn't that he hadn't watched Leo clean blood from his blades before, hell, that shit was normal. But this was the first time Leo had lost it and (at least in his brother's eyes) that blood was dishonorably taken. Leo just didn't look the same as he cleaned the razor sharp edge of one katana. Raph could tell his animal was riding very close to the surface right now and kept his distance. This was something they all had to battle with occasionally, though he had never seen Leo like this before.

Hell he was starting to think the blue clad turtle was more human than the rest of them. Until tonight.

Raph would never judge his brother, hell it was at his insistence that they needed to step out of their normal 'box' to get this done that had put them here tonight. Something had pushed his brother over the edge though.

They hadn't killed the thugs after they caught up to them a few blocks over, though Raph wondered, if Leo hadn't been close a few times. He was expecting the crooks to give up the info they needed fairly quickly after he showed them that the gloves were finally off. Unfortunately, nothing he did or said got a word out of the greasy ass bastards.

That's when his brother had stepped out of the shadows, and he was sure he was about to be called off. Leo never stooped to street justice to get info, beating on defenseless opponents was dishonorable, no matter who they were and Raph was sure he had far exceeded the limits of his brothers patience. But when he looked in his eyes, it wasn't disapproval he saw, it was a cold determination and Raph had gladly stepped aside.

Raph had been pumped as hell when Leo had agreed to go along with his plan in the beginning. He was finally going to get a chance to show his brother just how much better it works when you deal with the scum of the city in a way they understand.

No one in town was talking. They'd been searching for answers about those peoples disappearances everywhere. Everyone was too scared to talk, every one of the crooks they caught went to jail with sealed lips, terrified that if they they would be the next to show up a mutated corpse if they said anything.

Donny had hit a wall in his cyber sleuthing and Leo's way just wasn't working. They needed to show that they were serious, and Leo had finally agreed to do it Raphs way. Just once.

He was getting pissed that after half an hour of strong arming he still hadn't been able to get a word out of either of the douche bags but then Marcus made a comment, he hadn't really been paying attention, it was typical back talk but that was when his bro had stepped in. Their silence hadn't lasted long after Leo got started.

He had never realized just how surgeon like his brother could be with a blade.

Donny would have been impressed. No. Impressed was the wrong word... Disgusted? Appalled? Maybe even horrified?

He should have done this alone, left once his brothers were asleep like usual and gotten the info his way without forcing the eldest into this position. But he could see Leo was being eaten up inside. The longer they went without finding the killers the more he seemed to whither away, and Raph had thought it might help if he took that rage out on the ones who deserved it.

Hell Leo wasn't sleeping, barely eating. He was being eaten alive by anger and frustration. Two things Raph knew well.

Now though, he felt like he might have made a mistake.

"You can stop staring Raph. It's still me." Something told Raph that statement wasn't entirely accurate..

He grunted in reply and kept his concern to himself. "Jus' thinkin about what they had ta say bro."

Leo knew the way his brother was looking at him right then had nothing to do with what the thugs had said and everything to do with how he got them to say it. He chose to let it go however. At least, for now. He did't want to talk about it anymore than Raph apparently did. His brother did't understand why this was so important to him, why he was taking it so personally. Why he was willing to step outside of his 'box of nobility' as Raph had called it, to find the killers. None of them did. That was his fault though, he should have told them. He should have done so many things differently. But he had been weak and afraid... and that weakness may now cost someone their life, he couldn't let that happen. Leo finished cleaning his blade and sheathed it in the leather scabbard on his back.

Turning to his brother he schooled his features to show nothing but calm determination."Now that we know for sure Hun has a hand in this I believe its time for a chat with tall dark and ugly. We need to go straight to the source, were too close to answers to stop now. Lets move." Leo stepped out into the down pour, fully intending to hunt Hun down when Raph suddenly grasped his bicep, pulling him to a stop. Irritated, Leo's gaze swung to his brother in question but Raph was already ready for him.

"Bro I'm witcha, I am. But tha sewers are flooded here. Mikey an Donny prolly took that girl to tha lair instead of a hospital an tha sun's about ta come up man. We gotta get ta covah soon." Leo thought back to what he had said to his younger siblings before he and Raph had left in pursuit and cursed himself for a fool. Raph was right, he hadn't specified to Don 'exactly' how they should take care of the girl. Leo had been so intent on tracking down Hun's men for answers that he was acting more like Raph than himself. He needed to get control of his emotions or he wouldn't be able to help anyone.

Donny was nothing if not a mother hen when he perceived someone as His patient and he always saw everyone he helped as His patient unless Leo ordered him to take them to a hospital.. which he always did... Except this time... Damn it!

Raph was right. They had to get below ground, he couldn't risk them being seen. His brothers safety had to come first, and now he had a stranger in their home. For all they knew she could be an enemy as well. It wouldn't be the first time their enemies had lain that kind of trap for them. Donny and Mikey were both too altruistic to care about the danger she could pose to them. It was settled then.. 

No matter how much he wanted to tell Raph to go home and deal with it. So he could continue his search, he had to remember his responsibilities to his family first. 

He would find Hun, he would hunt that bastard down on his own if he had to, but he had to make sure his brothers were safe first. It was his duty to protect his family above all else right? 

So then, why did he feel like he was being ripped in half as he turned away from the ledge. 

"Alright..." Leo took one last look over his shoulder toward the docks, and Hun's stomping grounds and he made a vow.. ' I will find you, and they will pay..' 

"Lets go home, Raph."

___________________________________________ 

Donny's Lab 

Donny was really enjoying this dream... It had been recurring for a while now, and he just knew this time he would find out how it would end. 

The Trans dimensional field generator was running smoothly, the low hum of building power was music to his ears and the buzz in the air had him feeling energized as hell. It had been a while since he had been this excited, he could feel the static electricity building in the air as the coils gathered more power. 

The lights flickered as the energy flowed around him in an ever increasing whirlwind of power. Soon a tingling sensation started building within his flesh and he knew, if he'd had hair, it would be standing on end. 

How many times had he stood right here on this platform staring at this crowning achievement? How many times had he been this close to finally seeing if his dream would come to fruition?

The feelings of success and accomplishment that came from inventing were like a high for him, and right now he felt like he was riding the lightning itself. A broad grin spread over his wide face as he watched the power build within the field ring. The atoms there creating a sphere of white hot energy, one that arced out at random, reaching for a ground it would not find. Like lightning in a bottle.  

The tangled blue and white webs spread from its center like little feelers as the rolling white hot energy in the center began to bulge, expanding and contracting like a heartbeat. His ears popped and Donatello's smile turned into a frown, he worried suddenly that he may have made a mistake.. What if his calculations were wrong? What if the containment failed? He could inadvertently take out half of New York and his own family as well!

He had to shut it down before that could happen but he couldn't move. His legs suddenly felt like lead weights and everything around him was suddenly so very far away. All but the machine that seemed to reach out for him. Fear took hold but for a moment before he remembered himself and drew his bo staff. Ready for whatever happened next he watched in rapture as the tightly wound ball of floating energy began to ripple and contract, it arced out impressively once more before exploding into a beautiful corona of liquid light, filling the ring that held it in a wash of vibrant lights and colors.

Great Giver of Gadgets, It was Beautiful...

The rippling light looked just like a small pool of pearlescent water. He found himself moving toward it, intent on touching its surface. His hand reached out on it's own, his fingers just barely making contact. It was like liquid silk on his fingertips. The liquid stilled at his touch and held for a moment before shuddering violently. He snatched his outstretched hand back in as if bitten and a sound came from the portal like a whimper.

Donatello frowned as the liquid vibrated with the sounds coming through. It was moaning now, its surface churning in time with its grief. Something was wrong. Did he hurt it when he touched it? Was it somehow alive? As he listened to the strange melody he realized he was hearing garbled words. He came closer and leaned in so that he was just a hairs breath away from its rippling surface... ~~Aaak~ ~aaahp~ ~Donnny~~ Over and over it repeated but he couldn't make it out. "What are you trying to tell me?" he snapped finally.

Something tapped him on the shoulder then and he could feel hot breath against his neck.

Frozen in place he closed his eyes and waited for it to speak, when nothing happened he slowly opened his eyes. Peering into his face was the battered visage of the woman they had just saved the night before. "Get up Donny." He was already up.

Before he could ask what she meant, she leaned forward and screamed into his face, "IT SAID, "WAKE UP!""

Donny's head flew up from his cluttered desk with a start. His arms reaching for his bo instantly. A trail of saliva and loose paper following him as his rolling chair became unbalanced and shot forward out from under him, hitting the wall under the desk as he fell backwards and pain shot up his spine as his carapace hit the floor, his tail protesting and throbbing now too.

Damn it, he'd fallen asleep at his desk again...

Why did waking up always have to be so painful?

Right. Because he was a compulsive workaholic with a caffeine addiction and penitent for passing out in rolling chairs.

He hated falling asleep like that. Bringing a large green hand to his face he wiped the sleepiness from his eyes and felt something wet on his cheek. He frowned. Oh Gross! He drooled on himself... eeeghk.

After wiping his face he managed to pull his chair back out from under the desk and crawled back into it. Yawning widely he stared at the blank screens in front of him for a moment before getting up and washing his face and hands in the sink nearby. Back at his desk he used a bottle of hand sanitizer to finish cleaning himself up.

His gaze drifted to the coffee cup sitting nearby, it was still half full but its contents were no doubt fridgid. He was going to have to see if Mikey could get him some stronger coffee..This stuff was obviously not doing the trick anymore.

That's when he heard the tiny moan coming from the table behind him.

Shit!! The girl! He quickly fetched a wet rag and grabbed the syringe he already had prepared for her before passing out. He mentally chastised himself again for nodding off as he felt her forehead. She was burning up and the blankets were soaked around her. The pain medicine had clearly worn off some time ago and she was twisting and turning in her sleep, causing the sheets to bunch and twist around her like a Vise.

He shouldn't have fallen asleep. She should have been under constant supervision and he had been negligent in caring for her. She definitely had a concussion, and it wasn't helping her rest peacefully at all. She was obviously having a nightmare and the fever was exasperating it.

The way she moaned and thrashed.. like she was being tortured in some way had the purple clad turtle in knotts. His protective instincts were screaming at him to Fix it! Fix it! 

After what she had been through he was pretty sure he knew what she was dreaming about and went to work on untangling her sheets. They needed to be changed along with her clothes. Which were now not only damp from earlier but now wet from perspiration as well.

This was just great. 

He had been hoping that could wait until April came down but the storm had most of the tunnels flooded now. His brothers would have no problems navigating the dangerous pipes but April would have to wait until tomorrow when the rain would pass before she could come down with some clean clothes for the girl.

Until then, Donny had a beautiful young woman with a concussion and fever to tend to.. and now he would have to take her wet clothes off of her to keep her warm.... Ju-ust grreat!


	5. Chapter 5

Loud and incessant moaning... Not fun to wake up to. Especially, when you realize that you are the one making that gawd aweful noise.

Rachel's puffy eyes refused to open even an inch and her skull felt like the bass-drum at a Pitbull concert. Her face was throbbing to the beat. With every pulse of blood pumping through her veins a new wave of agony crashed over her. Oh yeah, this was gearing up to be one hell of a hang over.

And as if shit wasn't bad enough, the fucking heater must have died again because her ass was freezing. The maintenance guy, a squat man in his late forties named Lue, was never quick to fix anything. He kept saying he would fix it but she knew better. If she could just save up a little more money she could afford the down on a nicer place. Maybe something closer to Meghan's.

Five minutes passed and her eyes still wouldn't open and her whole body continued to ache.

"Gah.. Please! No mas!" Groaning some more, she decided to just 'rip the band aid off' and get up. She needed to call and check on Meg. Blinking several times she tried to clear her eyes but they didnt want to cooperate, it was pitch black in her room. What was she doing home anyway? The plan had been to pass out on Meghan's couch..

Slowly she sat up, wrapping the sheet around herself to keep the chill off. She eased her feet to the floor and hissed like a snake as her toes connected with a block of ice.

ShitShitShit!

Her room had carpet.

Old, ugly ass carpet!

This was cold, and gritty, and hard, aaand sooo totally Not carpet!

Now awake, thanks to her frozen toes, she realized it was way too dark to have been her apartment to begin with. There were no neon lights glowing from outside her window splashing neon colors across her walls.

There wasn't even a window to speak of here as far as she could tell.

Her body percisted to ache as her fingers searched, helping where her eyes could not. Finding a damp stone wall nearby she shivered again from the cold. The mattress under her was worn and lumpy, and had clearly seen alot of use, but the sheets felt crisp and clean. She thanked god for small miricales There was a musty smell in the air, like the forest after a rain but even stronger was the scent of sandalwood and leather. This was definately not her room.

"Where the hell am I?"

Slipping off the mattress, she tied the sheet tightly under her arms and tried to feel her way arround the darkness.

Her head was still splitting. The pain was making it hard to make sense of the shapes around her as her eyes continued trying to adjust. It was so dark though. She could barely make anything out.

She found shelves and shelves full of boxes. A few piles of what felt like spare computer parts and more shelves full of .. what she could only assume was junk. But mostly she found computer parts; keyboards, chip sets, mother boards, frames. Then there were boxes of what felt like gears? wires, batteries ?

What the hell? Ok her first question wasnt nearly forceful enough. "Where the fuck am I?"

-Ok. Time Out. Have you ever taken a drunk person who has passed out and hidden them somewhere wierd? Like, I dunno, a closet? or maybe the trunk of their car? possibly pushed them out onto a lake in a boat without a paddle? No? Well its funny as hell. So long as your not the one waking up under the bathroom sink or the trunk of a car wondering what the hell happened. So that's how she was feeling right about then. A true what the fuck moment.

Time for a fact check:

She was nearly naked in what appeared to be a small storage room. . How the hell did she get here?

She damn sure hadn't brought herself, which means someone else must have. And where the fuck were her clothes! What the hell had she gotten into last night?

The pain in her head and face had intensified as she sat there until she could no longer ignore it. She had to try hard to hold in the groan of pain, as she fought back nausea. Not wanting to alert anyone that she was awake yet, she kept quiet and took slow breaths to fight off the rising .

She brought an unsteady hand to her face and felt her bruised cheek. Frowning at the sudden memory of a fist flying at her. She fought to remember more. It all started coming back to her then. The roof. The rain. The men in the alley! They had attacked her, and one had tried to rape her. She had fought back though, and he had beaten the crap out of her for it.

Did he finish what he started after she passed out?

She was sore, but more in an, "I was hit by a large truck" kind of way..

She was however nearly naked. . god only knows what happened while she was unconscious.

Fighting the sudden urge to vomit, she focused on her breathing, forcing the bile back down. She wanted nothing more than to scrape her own skin off at that moment, she felt like it was crawling. Reminding her of things best left forgotten. The panic began to claw at her throat, her breath came fast and her vision swam, the need to bolt riding her hard. But running like that would only get her caught. She had to calm down. Needed to get a grip.

Fear couldnt help her. Later she would feel fear. Later she would cry. But Now she needed to escape. Not run. There is a differance..

She decided they must have brought her here after she had passed out.

Why didn't they just kill her though? She had seen their faces! They wouldn't have just let her go if for no other reason than she could turn them in. She didn't know anything though so they couldnt want information. Unless they wanted lessons in manners and chivalry. Which, they sorely needed. Bastards.

So they had other plans for her that didnt include killing her right away. That thought sent a chill down her spine.

She had to find a way out before they came back.

It was her only hope to escape. God only knew what they had planned for her when they got back. She didn't want to think about it.

Her muscles screamed at her as she moved and her vision kept blurring. It didn't help that she could hardly see a damn thing in the dark! It was like pitch in here.

Now, it wasn't like her to nit pick someone else's process. But. If she had kidnapped someone. Then left that someone alone, she would have damn well tied them up first!

Their first mistake would be her first lucky break.

Surely they didn't expect her to just lay here and wait for them to come back like a good little hostage? Yeah dudes. Not happening. Thanks but no thanks! Momma's got other plans assholes.

Tearing a strip of cloth from the sheets, she made a simple wrap skirt that she tied at her hip and another strip to wrap around her breasts and neck. Fate be damned, she was Not running around naked in the streets of New York and everyone knows its hard as hell to run arround with a blanket. If shit really hit the fan she might go Native, but for now, her milkshake was not bringin any boys to the yard.. Plus she needed free hands to "see" with. And hopefully find a weapon with.. just in case. You know, she needed to beat the fuck out of anyone or whatever. Night was still young, and judging by her current run of luck Anything could happen between here and a police station.

She had no sooner stood up from the cot, tieing the last knott in her make shift halter top when she heard footsteps approaching from outside her "room".

There was nowhere to hide other than on top of the cot though.

She felt around for something she could use as a weapon and almost shouted in joy when her questing hands wrapped around a heavy wooden stick about a foot and a half long that she had nearly kicked over.

She couldn't even tell where the door was, so she quickly crawled back onto the bed and covered herself up. They didn't know she was awake yet so she arranged what was left of the sheet over herself. She would have to use surprise to her advantage. After all they had no way of knowing she was awake and ready to run. Relaxing her features as best as she could, she allowed the tiniest slit to open in one eye and watched under the veil of her lashes as what she had thought before to be a wall slowly slid opened and a tiny bit of candle light slipped through. It was a large sliding door then..

There wasn't near enough light to see more than the large shape in the doorway, the shape of the man standing there only slightly darker than the room behind him. His face was still obscured by the darkness but she could make out his silhouette just fine.

And against the flickering candle light, he was enormous! This man was massive. In height and girth alone he dwarfed the thugs from the roof.

This was definitely Not one of the two goons from the roof top. Maybe he was their boss or something? The assholes who attacked her were nowhere near as big as this guy.

This was going to be a bad day for one of them and she sure as hell wasn't planning on it being her.

Chains clanked ominously from his body and leather squeaked as he moved closer. Clearly this man was to torture her.

Not happening buddy!

The glint of something sharp caught her gaze and panic nearly consumed her as she realized she was right. Her heart raced beneath her breast and the million possible scenarios of him, her and his pointy things ran through her mind. He was carrying a tray of something.. and her mind automaticly supplied her with images of torture tools and needles.

Racheal was past ready to make a break for it when he made the mistake of turning his back to her to sit the tray down on a stool. She moved swiftly, bringing the two inch thick chunk of wood around with enough force to knock out a small bull. She landed a solid blow to the back of her captors head and he let out a muffled Omph as he hit the ground hard. The tray and stool breaking his fall and shattering into a million splintered pieces. Sending metal objects skittering across the floor. She barely registered any of it though as she lunged for the door and was half way across the next room before the sound of scattering objects silenced.


	6. Chapter 6

"We didn't-"

"It wasnt my-"

"Enough Excuses!" Leo slammed his clenched fist down on Donny's desk hard enough to crack the wood, silencing the two younger turtles.

The purple masked terrapin adjusted the ice pack on their little brothers head where a large welt was forming. Earning a wince from the youngest ninja.

Leo hadn't seen them look so cowed since the days when their father would lash them for misbehaving and a small voice in his mind suggested he calm the fuck down. He couldn't though. He couldn't help but feel like everyone and everything was intentionally keeping him from his goal. They were so close to breaking this case. So close to finally finding the moster, the sick bastard who was kidnapping and killing people through out Manhattan. Mutation. These crazed scientists were snatching people off the steets and experimenting on them with all the care of a child with an ant farm.

People all over the city went missing. Only to reappear twisted and deformed. Dumped like trash in the river or sewers.

That was the worst. When they started finding bodies down in the tunnels. It brought the police into their domain. Adding to everything else, they now had to deal with more humans possibly finding their home.

They came close to being caught once, coming home from patrole one night a week ago. They had the luck of dropping in between two search groups. The humans were easy enough to slip arround but the dogs they were using were alot more trouble. Luckily they were cadaver dogs and not out for a fight.

Daily he worried they would have to move again. They didn't have much but what they did have was theirs and he would not leave this home easily. Not unless they had to. But even the pain that the thought of loosing this sanctuary brought to him was nothing compaired to the ache that twisted in his gut at the thought of failure. Again. He could Not fail again. He felt the blood of those people killed by these butchers on his own hands. He blamed himself for not being able to save them.

Young and old. Men, women ...and children. His stomach churned at the images his mind supplied of the children. Every time he thought of what they looked like when they were found.. He could only hope they had not been conscious for that change. They would have suffered tremendously..

He had to find Her before it was too late. He would never forgive himself if She suffered because of him. Guilt was like acid eating through him until he was raw inside and out. It was his fault they had Her.

And his own brothers had let a possible lead.. A possible threat. Into their home (though he reminded himself again that he DID tell them to tend to her.) and then they let her escape? She could be with the Shredder, or the Dragons, she would know where to lead their enemies to find them if she managed to make it to the surface. And that would be most inconvenient on top of everything else and it would slow him even more from finding Her.

He had to find Her, and this woman running arround in the sewers, was as Donny would say, a monkey wrench in all of his plans. Now instead of regrouping and planning their next move to find the missing people, and Her. They were having to hunt down and babysit this new pain in his tail. Turtle Luck was running true to form.

He gave Raphael a hard stare. "Find the girl. Quickly." A strong nod was all the reply he recieved before the largest of them was vaulting over the furniture and railings. Pausing only a moment to catch the scent he needed before disappearing down the tunnels and out of sight.

He could count on Raph to catch her quickly. His red masked brother had always enjoyed the thrill of hunting the most, and he always- Always caught his prey.

Until he returned with their wayward 'guest' however, there was a mess to be cleaned. And a cage to assemble. This tiny slip of a woman would not be assaulting another member of his family while he questioned her.

Mikey's skin was pale, his brow flecked with sweat and his eyes closed in shame. He was twisting his hands in his lap and Leo could tell his brother was feeling sick. Whether the sickness was over having lost the girl, getting yelled at by himself or the fact that a stranger he was trying to help had attacked him while his back was turned (though that may have just been Leo's miff with the situation) he wasnt sure. Either way, seeing their baby brother so guilt torn was his undoing. He could never stay angry with his family. It wasn't Mikey or Donny's fault. Though they could have done things differently, they were not his enemy. "Leo?" Mikey's voice drew his attention and he couldn't hide the exhaustion in his own as he replied rubbing his face with both hands.

"What, Mikey?"

"M'sorry Leo ..."

"... I know, Mike."

"Donny, do we have something more 'secure' we can house our 'guest' in when she returns?"

Donny's brow furrowed in thought before a toothy grin cracked his face. Adjusting his glasses he made sure Mikey had a hold of the ice pack before quickly making his way into his lab. Leo followed his brother at a brisk pace. Donny was in Full Engineer mode, he could tell, and Leo knew better than to either get in his way or wait too long to follow. Donny would get carried away quickly talking to himself and Leo might miss something important.

"I've been waiting for an oppotunity to try this out! But we rarely ever have any need for prisoners. Not- Not that she is.. a, um, p-prisoner. S-Shes very um, lovely." Leo raised a brow at his stuttering brother. Donny only stuttered when he was nervous so he have still felt some guilt over his own part in the womans escape. Leo hid his grin behind his normally stoic expression as Donny stuttered on. "But this w-would be an uh-excellent opportunity to test my new invention out! In a controlled situation of course." He rushed out. Its a bit of tech I reverse ingeneered from the krang. Its basically a magnetized plasma field where the Plasma is manipulated by a magnetic field strong enough to influence the motion of the charged particles. Its quite simple really. A common quantitatice criterion is that a particle on average completes at least one gyration around the magnetic field before making a collision-"

"Donny!"

At Leo's glazed look Donny took a moment to clear his throat and push his glasses back up. "It's a forcefield holding cell about seven feet in circumferance.. That means-"

"I know what circumferance means Donnatello!"

"She could just be an innocent bystander. I mean, you know.. after all."

"I would have been more likely to agree with you Donny, before she attacked Michelangelo. Now though, now I dont know what to think. But I will not take another chance where she is concerned. Not until we know who she is and what she knows. We are running out of time."

Donny had to agree with his brother, they didn't have long before another batch of bodies would show up. If this girl knew Anything it could be tremendously helpful. Not to mention she was with a couple of dragons, maybe she was a dealer or a user, though he didnt pick up any scents on her that would have definately been obvious if she had been in contact with any illegal substances. She just smelled like ... cookies .. and Vodka..

Mikey shuffled in then with a broom and dust pan, looking for all the world like someone had just kicked his kitten and Leo felt the need to reassure him. "Mikey, its ok. It wasn't your fault. Im not mad at you, Im angry with this whole situation, with the experiments and the people, the police hunting in the sewers, and now this girl.. I.. I took it out on you guys, and that wasn't right. Can you forgive me little brother?"

Mikey stopped picking through the broken glass from the spilled tray and looked up at Leo to give a reassuring smile. "Yeah Leo. We're cool. I know how bad you wanna catch this guy, we all do." He stood up to dump the dust pan in the trash and paused, shuffeling his feet like a guilty child. Even at 24 Mikey still managed to retain that childlike innocence. Atleast when he wasn't fighting..But his next words surprised Leo. And if Master Splinter had been there he would have probably fainted.

"I should have been paying more attention."

Hadn't they been telling him that for years? Somebody needed to mark the calandar.

"-I just got some new tunes see and well, I sorta forgot to take out my ear buds-" Now that was more like Mikey..

"-And I Know its a bad excuse!" He rushed out when Leo looked ready to say something. "Otherwise, I would have been able to tell she was awake. I know that. It was my mistake, but it wont happen again. I Swear. Scouts honour." He Held his fingers up with one hand and rubbed the back of his head with the other and winced in pain. "I definately learned my lesson though. That chick's got a hell of an arm, felt like Raph mule kicked me in the head.."

"It'll be ok Mikey." Leo patted the youngest on the shoulder. "Let me help you clean."

Mikey perked up a little at Leo's words. A look at the mess had him deflating again though. "Awe, man. That was my best china too. " Leo couldnt help but shake his head at his little brother.

"You dont think Raph will hurt her do you? I mean she was probably just scared, especially after what those loosers did to her."

"No, I dont think Raph will hurt her." He smiled assuringly, but the words tasted bitter on his tongue and he hoped for Mikeys sake that Raph didnt make a liar out of him tonight. Their little brother would blame himself if anyone got hurt because of his actions. Especially an innocent young woman. Leo could only hope for his own selfish reasons that she was not so innocent. ...And there was that bitter taste again.


	7. Chapter 7

She always imagined the underbelly of the city would be quiet. No car engines running, no horns honking or people filling the air with too much noise.

Just to be alone with her thoughts.

Just her and the trickel of water moving along the old red bricks..

Maybe the occasional rumble of a subway car from far away. How peaceful it would be to crawl into the earth and away from all the people and noise..

How wrong she was.

Rachel had changed her mind about being anywhere under the city.

Right about the third time she slipped and bust her ass on those old red bricks, and then again when the deafening roar of a subway car over head caused the sagging tunnel header to quake threatening to collapse above her and raining pebbles down around her. The dirty water, while not septic was still foul smelling and so not where she wanted to spend her eternity, if in fact the fucker collapsed and crushed her into it.

Fuck. That.

On top of it all there was a roaring in her ears that may or may not have been her own blood racing through her head. Her heart was pounding in her chest, pistoning blood through her veins and pumping the adrenaline in her system to muscles already near collapse and others previously unused.

Parts of her wanted to shrivel up or burst into flame while her brain was busy making those same muscles get her Away from danger. Wherever the hell that might be.

She could swear that every breath she took was loud enough to draw the attention of every nefarious creature these tunnels housed to her location. Hoards of monsters were surely hunting her at that very moment, ready to sink their fangs into her neck.

That was in between the earth shakes and horn blows.

The water pipes rattling along the walls and the air vents hissing at every turn.

She never stopped running though.

Not when she tripped and tore her knee.

Not when she ran face first into a low hanging pipe running through a cross section. Her face would just have to catch the fuck up with her body.

Cuz bitch was haulin some serious ass.

Now Rachel was no coward by any means but she was also no Superwoman, and she sure as hell didn't think herself unintelligent. You have to weigh all aspects of a situation before you jump into it. That being said; Under Normal circumstances she would stand her ground. But when you find yourself half naked and unarmed, in an underground hideout; One that you have no clue how to navigate, with God only knows how many enemies gunning for your ass.. Sticking around to be a hard ass is -well.. Stupid. And she Sooo wasn't about to poke the hell around in 'Buffalo Bill's' basement tonight either. Clarice, she was not.

Uh uh. Nope.

She just hoped she found a way out before she ran out of steam. Or they found her. The adrenaline crash that was sure to follow this shit was gonna be epic. She just hoped she was still alive to have it. And preferably somewhere a little bit less disgusting at least. There had to be a way out of this hell somewhere.

She figured out quickly she was in some sort of sewer system as soon as she made it out that door and bee lined across the living room of their hideout. Thankfully these were storm drains however and not sewerage tunnels. The smell alone in those could knock a person out. Not that this shit was pleasant or anything. But she had hoped to find some sort of street access by now.

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes but it felt like she had been running down tunnels for hours. Her hands were scraped from before but now sported new cuts and scrapes from the uneven walls which morphed from crumbling concrete and re-bar to brick and steel back to concrete and brick again.

Her head was bleeding again from her beating earlier and if the moisture running along her hairline was any clue it was a nice open wound. But she couldn't bring herself to touch it and find out. triage could wait till later. Escape, now. Medical care, after.

God these tunnels were old too.

Obviously no longer maintained by the city but there still had to be a way out. She just had to keep moving.

Her dive watch was a life send. Though it didn't have a lit screen, the face, hands and hours were a luminous green that in this vacuum of light provided enough glow for her to see a little. Not much, but enough to make out the shapes immediately around her. Unfortunately it didn't warn her about the low hung pipes and fallen headers or she wouldn't be sporting another bleeding head wound. Or maybe it was the same one and she just made it worse..

Pushing herself roughly off of the wall again as she tripped she righted herself once again and tightened her makeshift coverings and continued down the passage, careful not to step into the trickling water more than necessary.

Making a turn down yet another tunnel when her path was blocked by metal bars her heart nearly beat out of her chest and a hysterical giggle fell from her lips as she noticed a faint light coming from around the curved pipe.

Nearly tripping over her own feet in her haste she ran for the exit she knew had to be there.

How many people survived this sort of thing? She wasn't even sure about the statistics but the chances of escaping from a group of killers underground or above had to be infinitesimal.

She was never taking anything for granted again.

She was going to quit smoking and eat right and take yoga and bungee jump and sky dive and a million other things people do when they touch death and walk away changed.t

The light grew in intensity as she neared and the sight of the rusted out ladder leading to what could only be freedom and fresh air had panic clawing at her again. They could still catch her and stop her, she wasn't out yet. But it was so close.

The short ladder was a few feet from the ground and she had to pull herself up with her arms.

Muscles protested the movement but she grit her teeth and put all she had left into pulling herself up. Cursing her lack of upper body strength as she struggled to gain purchase on the only thing between her and fresh air. She mentally added Gym membership to the list of things to do once she was free and used her legs to awkwardly walk her feet up the wall and onto the bottom rung. Standing up she reached for the manhole cover. A single car passed by overhead and she screamed for help, knowing the streets were empty at this hour and that no one would hear her.

Frantically shoving at the cast iron lid that did not want to move caused her to slip, sliding down several rungs before catching herself again and scrambling back up. She knew she was on the edge of becoming hysterical for real.

Those thugs were going to find her and she wasn't sure she would make it out of their hands again.

At least not in any form one would consider 'alive'.

Raphael had a good idea where she was headed. There weren't too many options for her tonight.

Donnie had many of the tunnels closed off to divert the flood waters from the storm above. One of the many things his genius brother had done to add protection to their new home was create a water diversion system for times just like this. A couple taps at his nerd station keyboard and viola! Tunnel doors closed in a dozen different pipes and water flowed harmlessly down or around the lair leaving them dry as a bone and luckily for him... with one way out.

This was gonna be cake.

Even without the lack of hiding options she was still making this too easy for him.

Fear is the easiest scent to track, its strong and sour, an affront to the senses, really. It burned his nose and urged him on, the sooner he found her the sooner he could make the smell stop.

One good pinch of the carotid and shed be out and he would be on his way home for some shut eye. Felt like days since he had sleep. Going on three actually..

If he didn't get some Z's soon he was gonna drop. Even Mutants have a limit, he learned that when he was a teenager, mutagen only heals so fast and what did Donnie call it... syncope? Prolly just a fancy word for faintin. Cause that's what happened to him. Would be the result of lack of rest even for Them after so long.

That shit was embarrassing.

Nothin worse than loosin a fight with Leo.

Unless its loosin a fight with Leo cause you pass out like a feinting goat in mid lunge and face plant at his feet proving his point that ya aint been takin care o'ya self.

That bastard was smug for days.

So grab the girl. Toss her ass in Leo's lap and get some shut eye.

Leo was worried she could be in league with one of the gangs runnin around or worse in with Hun or the Foot. They all beat on each other more often than not. Its possible he and his brothers managed to interrupt a drug deal gone bad or somethin. Who knows. Fearless just wanted to be sure. If she did have any useful information then Leo could handle gettin it outta her.

Raph was pretty sure she was innocent, but with the murders recently and the lack of leads, it wasn't worth taking the risk of assuming her innocence and missing out on some crucial piece of information. If she was clean then they could let her go, she didn't have to know who they were. They were ninjas after all, knock her out, blind fold her and question her from the shadows.. easy as pie.

Just had to catch up to her ass first.

His body moved silently through the sewers. His muscles twitched with anticipation. She had no clue what was really hunting her.

The chase always brought out something dark and primal within him. It was unlike any high he had ever experienced, maybe it was a throwback to his animal genetics or maybe it was his own twisted instincts, he didn't know. But of all his brothers he enjoyed hunting down his targets the most. His senses sharpened and he felt Alive. The only time he didn't hate his inhuman half.

He really began to embrace his animal nature after his sixteenth birthday. That year he learned no matter how Human he and his brothers were, no one would ever accept them as more than what they looked like on the outside. Walking talking turtles. Not People.

So why try to be something you aint, right.

Sensei once told him something that stuck with him. It was during that same time when he was really at his lowest, he said that, " To know oneself is to be empowered Raphael. But when you truly begin to accept yourself, you will be invincible."

He decided then that he would do just that. No one would ever hurt him again. He would accept what he was, ALL of what he was. He stopped hoping for anything more than being seen as an animal. A monster and a freak.

And He Owned It.

His daylight alarm went off on his t-phone. "Shit!" 10 minutes to sunup. Raph put on an extra burst of speed. He had to catch her before she made it out of the sewers. If she managed to make it topside he wouldn't be able to follow her with the sun coming up.

He tracked her scent toward the only split in the pipe hoping she had chosen the left hand culvert which lead into a nice little dead end but he cursed again when her smell went to the right. Straight for the 5th street manhole cover. That road was just busy enough to keep him underground during the day but not so busy that she wouldn't be able to crawl out into traffic and not get hit.

Double fuck.

He took the turn toward the exit ladder just in time to see her creamy legs taking the last steps up into daylight. He roared as he lunged for her feet, his hand closing around air as she slipped through his fingers into the street above. The blaring car horn and her startled scream nearly drowning out his own roar of defeat.

The fuckin bitch made it! Shit..

He peeked through the manhole enough to see she wasn't hit and the driver of the car was helping her to her feet. Her wild eyes met his for a fraction of a second and he suddenly felt like all the air had been sucked out of him. Even scratched and beaten she was beautiful.

Her long hair was wild. Framing her angels face like a halo of fire in the early morning sunlight. Her body was scantily covered by the ripped sheets she had tied around herself but not so much as to be indecent.

Raphael's mouth went dry in that instant. She looked like a warrior princess struck down in battle and he wanted to be the one to pull her to her feet.

One look into her eyes though and he could see the fear and anger that had become so familiar to him. What he saw in her eyes once again reminded him that he was not like her.

He never would be and for whatever reason for those few moments he had forgotten.

He suddenly wanted to hurt her for reminding him of what he thought he had moved past.

He slowly moved back into the shadows. His nostrils flared and he clenched his green fists until his nails bit into his palms. She wouldn't get far.

He had her scent.

He knew her face.

He would find her.

And he hoped with everything in him that she would run when he did.

Flipping his phone open he dialed his geeky brother.

Don answered on the second ring and Raph was already en rout to the lair. Water splashed his wet shorts as he recalled to his brother what had happened. He could hear Leo curse in the background and knew his older brother had been listening too.

"You got anythin on dis chic bro? Address or somethin?" Donny was clearly distracted but multi-tasking as usual.

"Mikey! get outta that! I believe so Raph, hold on a sec. Your on your way back to the lair?"

He could hear Donny rustling through junk in his lab and Mikey's whining about new tea cups or some shit. "Yeah." He huffed as he ran. "Coming down the green-way now. You got somethin or not genius?"

"Yeah, umm .. let me just see here.."

"Nah bro, please jus take ya time," he snarked, "its not like we got a girl runnin around up dere who knows how ta get ta tha lair or nothin!" His Brooklyn accent was getting worse by the second.. Raph rolled his eyes trying not to scream at his bro. The need to track the girl down was clawing at him and he felt surrounded by idiots. Course who was da idiot dat let ah go topside huh? Raph almost snarled at himself.

"Were in luck Raph, she had her drivers license in the back pocket of her jeans. I have an address and a name. Shes a local."

"Good. We get ah tonight."

"Leo says its a go."

"Good, dat chics mine." He hung up his phone and smirked to himself in the darkness of the tunnel. He was gonna show her real fear.


	8. Chapter 8

Marcus came awake to a throbbing ache in his head and for just a moment, he couldn't remember what had happened to cause it. As he opened his swollen eyes the harsh overhead lights stabbed his retinas and the pain in his frontal lobe intensified and he groaned through the pain. He tried to remember what had happened. He felt like shit all over, the last thing he recalled was turning in the case..

Hun had discovered one of the syringes was fake.

He remembered the black light the foot ninja had used to scan over the case with after Hun presented it to him for inspection. Macus knew what had happened then. It must have been how they could tell the one vile was fake and the foot guy accused the boss of doublecrossing them. Thats when the ninja guy and Hun started argueing. After several seconds however Hun cut his eyes to Marcus before turning back and shaking hands with the Foot's little advocator. It all happened quickly then. The case was closed up and gone along with the ninja holding it. The money the little guy left for Hun as payment was quickly counted up and gone as well.

Thats when three ah them foot guys grabbed him and the lights went out.

The throbbing in the back of his skull hinted at what went down to cause the black out- Sneaky ass little fuckers.

And if it wasn't already abundantly clear, he yanked his arms downward testing the strength of the thick chains holding him up.

Hun was Not happy with him.

Looks like ima get my ass beat twice tonight.. As if getting cut up by them damn freaks was't good enough..

They wanted answers to questions he couldn't give 'em. He already had tah deal with the missing syringe, he knew the green guys wouldn't kill him. He didnt think they would go as far as they did and he had to admit he almost cracked when the blue one started cuttin on em. But that one didn't have the look in his eyes the red one did an Marcus knew he wouldnt die by his hands. The red howevah mighta been a different story. He had heard rumors about what happened to guys when that red moster got you alone without his green friends. Whatever the hell was goin on ta get 'Them' involved was Way above Marcus' pay grade..

They didn't like his lacki ah knowledge too much either.

First that Big one beat the ever lovin shit out of him tryin ta get him to tell 'em what they wanted to hear. Whatever the hell that was. Somethin about dead people and mutants. He didn't know shit about none ah that.

Now he wasn't proud of the fact that he had said Alot. of other shit. But he managed to keep the delivery that night to himself. Only cuz Hun was not the kinda boss you fucked up with. Beggin them Freaks to let him go an damn near wettin himself was not one of his finer moments. Grant you that. Neither was babbling about every bad thing he ever did hoping ta make em stop. None of it was what they was lookin to hear anyway. That red one packed a hell of a punch and Marcus wasnt thinkin too clear by that point anyway. Not sure he coulda answered any more questions with his busted up face and swollen jaw anyway. He could barely swallow let alone speak. But they must have taken his silence as a refusal to cooperate.

That's when the other one decided to play bad cop worse cop.. The one with them big ass swords. He came up outta tha dark like some kina ghost pullin a couple knives from the dark like he was a magician. That's when shit really got fuzzy in his head.

His head turned as a door that he hadn't notice until then opened across the empty room drawing his attention. He tensed, expecting Hun or one of his lap dogs to saunter in but the lithe little blonde with a severe bun and a clip board caught him off guard. Watching her clack in, in her high heels and stark white lab coat was enough to make him question whether or not this was some kind of joke after all. Like an episode of "You Been Punked" or some shit.

"Mr. Marcus Allen Luttrel? " She asked without looking up from her metal clip board. Still jotting something down as she had been when she walked in.

What the hell was this?

"Yeah." He yanked on his chains again to get her attention, anger filling him at being restrained. "Whats da meanin of dis, huh? I ain't done nothin!" Never admit to guilt. Rule number one.

Her steely blue eyes finally lifted

"Yes, well unfortunately Mr. Luttrel, that is not my call -Or my business. Nor is it why I am here."

The door opened once again. This time admitting an orderly. Some guy in blue scrubbs rolled a cart into the room. The wheels squeeking every other rotation, the top loosely covered by a white cloth. The fabric hung nearly to the floor. Marcus had never cared much for doctors or hospitols to begin with and the whole scene raised a hundred red flags in his mind and a terrible feeling crawled across his skin.

If they hadnt chained him to a pipe in the wall he might think they was gonna patch em up or somethin. ...He was still kinda holdin on to that hope when the she-devil in heels whipped the cloth off the top of the cart and made his gut clench.

"You see Mr. Luttrel." She set her clipboard aside and carefully looked over the instruments atop the cart while his eyes followed, choosing one of a half dozen identical syringes before turning back to him with a look of sympathy. Was she fuckin with him? "Mr. Mason .. I believe you know him as Hun? Well he has kindly volunteered yourself for our program."

Marcus's face was a canvas of confusion so she decided to clear it up a little bit more for him. "In leau of some missing product." She hinted, "Im sure you know nothing about that either do you Mr. Luttrel?"

Was she mocking him now?

Fuck. "What Program? What the Hell are you talkin about Lady!?" He yelled at her, eyes swinging back and forth between her and the orderly who was holding open the door for two more men in scrubs to join them. "What the fuck is goin on? I aint volunteerin for Shit now Lemme GO!" He yanked harder at his chains with every word he spat at them.

She gave a subtle nod to the boys in blue and they were on him in a flash forcing him down. His knees cracked as they hit the steel floor and his arms were wrenched high as the chains were stretched to their limits. He fought as hard as he could in the shape he was already in but they had him and they knew it. The Evil bitch from hell calmly walked over to him and leaned over to look him in the eye. "My my, aren't you a feisty one." She turned her gaze to the ass holding his right shoulder down. "Tom, his arm please."

'Tom' apparently had some experience, he ripped the top of Marcus' long sleeve down his arm, causing Him to renew his fight, spitting in the bitches face when she got close enough to stick him with her needle.

Screeching out an obscenity at him as she snatched up the discarded cloth and cleaned her face of his mucus was the first crack he had seen in her icy demeanor and it almost made him smile to see he had pissed her ass off.

"You know, Marcus.."she said between clenched teeth. " There is an easy way, and a hard way, for everything." Her suddenly sweet voice had his gut twisting. The wrestler to his left wedged his thumb under Marcus' jaw and forced his mouth closed while wrenching his head back causing him to close his eyes at the sudden pain. Her voice near his ear making him open them again. "Personally Mr. Luttrel, I prefer the hard way."

She jammed the syringe into the meat at the side of his neck and forced the plunger down. Flooding his system with the fires of Hell itself. He screamed into the room from the pain engulfing his body. The orderly letting him drop on his chains to writhe in misery. He screamed until his voice broke. Until his lungs gave out and he slumped forward unconscious.

She stayed there watching him hang limply from the wall for a moment before taking down her notes. He hadn't lasted more than a minute before passing out. She almost felt robbed. Her Employers promised her a strong subject, not .. well.. This!

Her lips puckered in irritation as she looked Mr. Luttrel over once more. She had expected .. more. Grant it, the syrum she had injected him with wasnt mutagen, but it should have had a more interresting effect. Most of the other patients certainly had lasted a few minutes longer before passing out from the pain.

It certainly metabolized quickly in him though..

Noting his physical characteristics as well as take his vitals while he was unconscious, she couldn't help but notice the severely beaten state of his body. Her nose Had been in her notes when she first arrived in the room.

She mentally slapped herself on the hand for not noticing his state sooner. Not that it would have changed anything. But she noted her earlier assumption that he was a weakling and unfit for her experiments may have been a bit premature.

How much pain had he already suffered she wondered? Judging by the wounds she could see alone, he had been through quite a bit before he was given to her. Her wrist watch let out a series of beeps and she waved the orderlies to clean up the room and prepare Mr. Luttrel for examination. Maybe his bodies quick metabolation of this part of the syrum would change something vital in the mutation process... Suddenly encouraged she moved into the hall.

Stepping out of the way of the gurney being wheeled out behindher with her new patient firmly strapped in she continued to take down her notes. The fine point sharpie scratching over the course notepad was soothing to her mind. She had an ipad in her office but prefered the feel of a pen and paper. There was just something soothing about the feel of the felt or lead of the instrument in her hand cutting grooves into the paper below it. Like a scalpel through flesh..the feel of it was exquisit.

Her watch called out another set of shrill beeps louder than the last and she turned the alarm off before it could fuss at her any longer.

It was time to see her favorite patient.. The only one so far to show any promise.

Bishop's organization had surprisingly come through in procuring the solution she needed to perfect her mutagen. If all went as planned she should have a viable subject to show for her hard work very soon indeed.

She made her way down several intersecting halls toward room 1-B on the lowest level of the compound. Her heels clicking on the tiled floor echoed through the empty hallways. She made her way swiftly toward the only hope she had so far for success, checking the time again, tapping the glass on her watch. Two minutes to spare. Excellent.

Schedules were important to keep after all, where would we all be without order hm?

The grey halls of the facility she worked in all looked the same as she made her way through them. Various sized pipes ran along the walls beside and above her, pumping in air and water, taking out sewage and carbon gasses. The same white VCT tiles on the floor throughout gave the place a uniform feel.

If you didnt know where you were going here you could easily become lost. "Maybe that was one of the reasons for the original design," she mused.

The staff should have her patient restrained and ready to move by the time she arrived. However, this subject had more than once thrown the entire days schedule out of whack with her refusal to cooperate, and her pointless escape attempts.

It was becoming tiresom really.

They already had to remove the door knob from the insde of her room and the bed frame itself had been disassembled and removed days ago. The patient was now relegated to sleeping on her mattress on the floor -Her own fault for dismanteling it and using the spokes as weapons against the staff.

A commotion down the hall had her pinching her nose in exasperation. Five orderlies. FIVE! Well.. four standing, one looked to be unconscious on the floor.. All yelling and wrestling with her subject who looked like a tug of war toy between four pitbulls.

"It isn't even Lunch time yet." Vivian could definately feel a migrain coming on.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to start first by saying
> 
> **THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH ! **
> 
> To Everyone who has reviewed, followed or Favorited this Fic!
> 
> You are all my inspiration to continue this story, which I WILL continue!
> 
> And Also Thank You All for being so patient with me as I struggle to find the time to work on chapters.
> 
>  
> 
> THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT! I LOVE U ALL
> 
> XOXOXOX

Back at the Lair

 

Raphael Hamato's considerably large fists were wrapped tightly and clenched in anger as he loosed his pent up rage and irritation on the heavy bag in front of him.

A complex series of jabs and punches set the heavy sack rocking on its thick chain, causing a dribble of cement dust to fall from the ceiling. Too caught up in his rage to care, he continued to land blow after blow.

Each powerful impact caused more and more of the sandy filling to billow out from the hackneyed equipment.

It had seen better days, certainly. Don had yet to find a heavy bag Raph couldn't destroy in short order.

His eyes watered as the dust began to cloud his vision, causing him to blink in frustration.

Sweat poured down his neck and over his collar as he moved around the target in front of him and the soaked bandana tails of his mask stuck to his slick green skin.

Normally, the burn of an intense workout was relaxing to him. Cathartic even. The repetition gave him something to focus his energy on instead of losing himself to his anger.

*Punch*

Gave him an outlet. 

*Punch. Punch*

Helped to clear his mind.

*Jab, Dodge, Double Punch*

-It wasn't working

How did I let her slip away? She was Right THERE!

*Dodge, Counter, Double Punch*

One last heavy hit and the bag swung violently away from the large male animal. Chuffing in irritation, he wiped his slick brow and caught the swinging pendulum on it's return. Every inch of his body was drawn tight in irritation.

"And what would you have done with her if you had caught her huh?"

He would have had to knock her out.

She would have taken one look at his hulking ugly green ass and screamed her head off.

They always did.

The question was, why was it still bothering him?

He was used to it.

It always stung, yeah, he wasn't completely immune. But he sure as hell didn't get tore up about it like he used to. Back when he was a kid. When they all still held a glimmer of hope that people would accept them one day. Back when he hated feeling like a monster -An ugly disgusting beast.

He didn't let it get to him like that anymore.. So why was he so pissed off when he pictured that look on Her face?

Was it just bothering him because she got away? That didn't feel right, even if he did want to cling to the easy answer.

Or was it something else?

He wasn't relaxed at all.

And nearly destroying yet another punching bag as he imagined his opponent's invisible attacks was not clearing his head.

Not this time.

Her face was burned into his mind and he couldn't get that fearful expression out. It always pissed him off. Seeing that expression of fear or disgust on the faces of humans who managed to catch a glimpse of them. Usually on the face of someone they had just saved. No one would Ever see them and not think "monster."

Hadn't he learned that by now?

Centering himself, he began his routine again.

His calculated maneuvers however were quickly forgotten as he simply wailed on the tough leather workout equipment.

His wraps had soaked through with sweat long ago as he pushed himself harder, trying desperately to clear his mind and work off his frustration. Hitting stuff usually did the trick.

He couldn't go topside and beat down criminals, it was still morning. An intense workout would usually at least take the edge off.

It wasn't working though.. The muscles in his body ached and his shoulders burned.

*Double Punch*

He grit his teeth together tightly, trying to keep his anger under control.

His abused toothpick snapped under the pressure and images of the woman began flooding his head.

*Jab*

Her tiny feminine foot slipping through his hand.

*Duck*

Long athletic legs.

*Cross*

The way she smelled.

His stomach clenched in anger.

*Jab*

Why was he so unwound by her?

*Jab*

*Jab*

She was easy on the eyes from what little he'd seen.

But This was fucking Manhattan for cryin out loud!

Beautiful women were around every corner.

He'd rescued quite a few. Jacked off to plenty of porn stars in his day.

"Fuck."

What made her any different?

He only got one good look at her after she escaped. -Barely slipping through his hand at that damned manhole cover.

He hadn't paid much attention to her on the roof.

He'd been more focused on the fight to begin with. He certainly wasn't expecting her scent to affect him so strongly though.

That's when it had all started.

As he'd knocked that Perv off of her with a fist to the face, he had found himself nearly stumbling as her scent hit him like a wrecking ball. Completely destroying his concentration.

Her midnight scent had stalled his mind and her fear had enraged him all at once. Hed had to shake his head to regain focus.

Immediately melting into the shadows he had looked to where she had been half a second before, but Don had already swept her away as planned. His attention had snapped firmly back on the fight then, where it needed to be in the first place as her scent faded. It was the strangest thing, the way it affected him, and it was starting to piss him right the fuck off that he couldn't ignore it like every other person's he had ever crossed.

He hated seeing anyone bullied..

Especially women and children.

So he had figured his reaction had nothing to do with her personally but his need to avenge or protect her..

That seemed more like denial now.

Any possibility of that was washed away on the way home and he knew it wasn't just his protective instinct and anger anymore after Leo sent him after her in the tunnels:

When she ran, he didn't even have to try to pick up her scent. It had been wrapping around him from the moment they crossed the path Donnie and Mikey had taken home from that roof. Intensifying as they entered the sewers where there was less ventilation. It screamed at him to find her and make it stop. He didn't know what he wanted to stop, only that he was taking too long in doing it and his pulse was picking up with every second he was wasting.

Surreptitiously sneaking glances at his brother, Raph hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary with Leo. Honour Boy hadn't acted at all like he was being affected at all, while Raph on the other hand, had been assaulted with scents and emotions he hadn't, and still didn't, understand.

Who was she and why was she affecting him this way?

Maybe it was that tinge of fear that he felt compelled to stop. That made some sense..

It was clouding her natural scent.

One he couldn't let go of and wanted to investigate further.

Under the scent of rain, ozone and fear, was Her natural scent. Hot, Sultry and compelling.

He couldn't describe it -like leather and silk. Night blooming flowers and something that called to him on a primal level.

He had expected to find her at the lair, laid up in Donnies lab with Mikey covering her in cartoon bandaids or something stupid like that. It was the only thing keeping him from giving his anxiety away to Leo by jogging home faster. She's a fuckin stranger!

The surprise of finding out she had attacked Mikey and actually managed to get away was quickly forgotten as Leo ordered him to track her down. His inner beast let out a sigh of relief and had roared in excitement that it could finally hunt down the object of its curiosity and vexation and fix the problem.

The sight of her half way out of that manhole and into the street had enraged him. Not only did she get away, but she left him with her fearful scent and noway to get rid of it. His shell was annoyingly tight and he was starting to feel like a fucking puppet. Was this some new torture their enemies had concocted?

Bouncing from one foot to the other he picked up the pace of his workout. Jabbing and boxing at the bag. More concrete dust trickled from the ceiling but he didn't let up.

He had to get her out of his head.

Though he was starting to see that resistance was futile.

The slight swell of her breasts above the torn sheet was the next torturous image his lecherous mind produced for him. Along with her delicate neck and jawline. When her beautiful eyes, fierce and wild, had snapped to his and morphed into a look of horror.. It was like a blade had pierced his chest. Shredding and burning whatever had taken root there with the arrival of her scent. He was pissed off and confused. Who is she? And why did that look effect him the way it did?

She wasn't the first human to look at him like a monster, certainly wouldn't be the last.

"Maybe she didn't actually see me. Maybe she was just afraid of being caught?"

His attention starved imagination was so quick to toss up alternatives for her reaction but he knew better. No human, especially a human Woman, would Ever see him as anything other than a freak, a hideous monster to be feared.

"You know this, Dumbass."

His fist clenched tighter. Blunt nails bit into his palms and he let loose a series of quick jabs into the bag. It wasn't enough though. His skin felt too tight. Anger and frustration swelled inside him until he wanted to roar.

Over and over the images of her face battled for his attention. Attention he did Not wish to grant. Her scent was intoxicating, it should have dissipated by now to some degree but it had only seemed to intensify.

The smell of fear mixed with her sweet scent was an affront and he wanted to make it go away.

To replace that fear with something more pleasant. -And he hated himself for it.

He reminded himself of his promise to show her real fear when he caught her.

And he would catch her.

A large part of his psyche rebelled at the thought of hurting her in anyway though, even to scare her. Again he cursed this compulsion to fix something. The confusion was killing him.

He wanted nothing to do with her but find her and turn her over to his brother but that felt like a lie. He admitted she was compelling in her own right.

She was a fighter, he admired that in a woman. Had made it past his brother after all. Maybe that was what this was. She had simply impressed him with her narrow escape. Much as it irritated the hell out of him too.

The solution to his itchy hide was simple.

He would hunt her down and realize she was nothing special. Just another freaked out human woman. Nothing more.

Her scent seemed to intensify again and he nearly snarled a curse as his knees weakened. His scales felt raw and itchy all at once -this was driving him insane and getting worse.

His pulse rate increased and adrenaline flooded his system as he was overwhelmed with the need to find the source.

The woman.

His nemesis.

With a mighty roar his muscles coiled and he sprung into a roundhouse kick hitting the bag hard enough to snap the chain and send the heavy equipment sailing across the room and explode into the brick wall.

"Whoa, Dude!"

Mikey was focused on the pulverized bag as it hit the floor and tipped over. Not paying attention to the threat in the room.

Raph was already in motion though, spinning toward his new target. A fierce growl rumbled from his chest as his prey let out a startled squeak.

Mikey was slowly backing away, hands raised in suplication. All eyes on Raph.

Try not to look like a big red target to the green bull in the room.

They always say never run from an angry animal right? Yeah, heh.

He held his palms out toward his brother in a futile attempt at warding the behemoth off.

"N-Now Raph,' he started, stepping back gulping, "Y-you don't, .. w-wanna do anythin rash ..right dude?

Raphael charged.

Mikey screamed.

Leo ran a harshly calloused palm over his scaled head, irritably straightening and re-tightening the knot of his mask for the third time in so many minutes.

He watched his younger brother work. Staying well away from the menacing path of Donny's rolling chair. -which had claimed victory against many a-turtle-toe.

The techie was ever moving from one section of his station to the next and Leo had learned to keep clear long ago.

So he watched, silently.

Not Don though..

He, was talking to himself.

As he was wont to do..

Mostly he mumbled to himself. Whenever he was deep in thought or working on a particularly intriguing system. Anything that excited the brainiac really.

It was all gibberish to Leo however who merely stood vigil.

He knew the genius didn't need any help from him with what he was doing. Leo just felt more involved by being present.

He hated feeling like he wasn't doing anything to help. Though this was where Don excelled, and always succeeded, it still left the leader feeling anxious. Waiting for something to happen.

This situation was a complication that they did not need and he was beginning to develop a mutant sized headache.

Don had been tracking the girls movements from the moment Raph alerted them to her escape. With the help of the cities traffic cameras and surveillance systems thay had been able to follow her from the street above with no problem.

At least they HAD BEEN tracking her.

Right up until she had vanished.

Bloop. Gone.

Dons left leg wouldn't stop bouncing as his eyes roved frantically over a half dozen different monitors.

His six fingers were flying over his multiple keyboards, searching, decrypting, and bypassing firewalls pausing only to readjust his spectacles.

One minute they had eyes on her, riding in the car that had nearly hit her. -headed toward downtown- The driver, a middle aged man in a suit was taking her to the nearest hospital.

As soon as he made a call Don was ready, intercepting the call.

Thankfully it had only been to his wife.

They had listened in as he explained what had happened minutes before. How he had nearly hit the woman in the street, that she was probably in shock and was not talking only staring out the back window and shivering. But swore to his mate that he hadn't hit the woman.

The conversation was brief.

Mainly because Donatello hi-jacked his phone, changed the passwords and set the device to airplane mode to keep him from calling anyone else.

It was only a short stall and they knew it.

She would make it to the hospital and either tell the police or their enemies what had happened to her and where she had been.

Who she had been with.

Then his family would be screwed.

He had been trying to figure a way out of this mess when Don cursed.

The car had hit its breaks suddenly and made a sharp right turn onto another smaller street. It was only out of sight for a few seconds while Don switched to the bank surveillance cameras that would give him a good view of the vehicle as it crossed the next intersection or turned.

Moments later the black Lincoln reappeared.

Sans one passenger.

She was gone.

Leo felt his stomach plummet and his chest constrict as they both let out equal shouts of shock and denial.

"Where did she go?"

"I dont know!"

"Change cameras," Leo shouted! "Change them!"

"I AM ! Shes not There!"

The thousand and one horrible outcomes to this train wreck were suddenly at the forefront of Leo's thoughts as different views of the car popped on and off of the screens as Don searched frantically.

She knew how to find them.

If she was with the Dragons or the Foot she could lead them all straight to their lair. Or the Police..

"Shit!"

Leo was ready to call an immediate evac and relocation of their home.

He had no sooner spun from the computer screens to tell the others to get packing when Donnie shouted at him.

'Wait!"

The purple techie knew what Leo's first reaction was going to be to such a breach and he also knew there was nowhere else they could go. He had yet to secure a safe backup lair since their last move.

But He did have an idea. It would work if he acted quickly. Securing the girl until nightfall and possibly saving their shells in the process.

He began immediately, there was much to do, he would have to catch Leo up as he went.

The blue masked terrapin appeared next to Don's head, startling the younger turtle who had been in deep concentration. A visibly harried Leo searched the screens for what had caused Don to call him back. He didn't want to have to move their family again if it could be avoided. "What is it Don?"

Recovering quickly the purple masked turtle's hands were once again in motion as several monitors tracked the area they last saw the woman, half a dozen more came alive as well.

Leo could see his brother was up to something.

Something very complex..

One of the monitors flashed red, emitting a failed login alarm and his little brother cursed, frantically shifting papers and gadgets out of the way as he searched for something.

"A HA!" He exclaimed as he slipped a flash drive into one of the towers and started back to work on the keyboards.

Lines of code flew across the screens as pages opened and closed on multiple sets. He was hacking something.. Several somethings if Leo was correct..

He was getting anxious, and it showed in his voice. "Talk to me Don, what's happening?"

Don never slowed his frantic typing. "I have a plan. Its just a stall, but it should buy us at least a day. Enough time for nightfall."

"If she's innocent, and I do this, she might hate me Leo." Don's voice was strained, worry and guilt laced his sentences." I really hope she forgives me. Because we can't take the risk of anyone believing her story if she starts talking about underground hideouts and bad guys to the cops or worse makes it to any of our enemies and talks about anthropomorphic turtles. Whether she's innocent or not.." Don turned then to Leo to make his point clear. "You know we have nowhere else to go or I wouldn't do this."

Leo's brow furrowed in worry as three of Don's screens declared, Access Granted. "Will she be hurt?"

"No." A purple bandanna furrowed in thought.. "Maybe."

Don's fingers continued stringing lines together faster that Leo could read them. "Most likely not. Honestly Leo, I think she'll be just fine." That calmed the leader a bit. "What i'm about to do.." he continued, "What happens to her.. will honestly depend on her own behavior."

"Are there any other options?" Leo was torn. The thought of causing even more harm to someone who may have been completely innocent in this night's events did not sit well with the Leader in Blue. Even if it was only temporary discomfort.

He watched the tails of his brothers purple mask bounce as he shook his head no. "This is the best option Leo.

Never looking away from his task and pausing only to adjust his specticals Don answered swiftly, "Not that i can see, this is the best option I believe. It's only temporary though, someone will eventually find out who she is.. We'll be able to get her tonight though, and she'll be safe, if not Really pissed off. But safe. We all will be. Even if she isn't with the dragons.. they could be looking for her now as well. This will also keep Her safe from Them." Don finished with finality and confidence. His fingers stalling he turned to Leo. The screens above now flashing a green request for confirmation.

Leo knew his brother was waiting for the go ahead. Don wouldn't act without the permission of the clan leader. And as his sibling looked on him with nervous impatience he was reminded that that, was Him.

Leo winced.

He was reminded of his actions earlier.

Though he could not find it in himself to feel shame or regret.

His clear lack of control lately was as out of character for him as it was troubling.

Now he held a possibly innocent womans fate in his hands, and he was afraid he may come to regret his decision later.

But his family was his most sacred responsibility.

The safety and survival of the Hamato clan left to him, and would always be his first priority. Resolve strengthened he gave Don a stiff nod of approval.

"Do it."

**Author's Note:**

> I want to say Thank You, first for reading this fic. and sorry second, because I have Never Ever written a story before =) I have a ton of ideas in my head though screaming at me so i decided to try and put them together. My medium is art, I sketch , writing is completely new to me so Words of wisdom and any advice on how to improve are greatly appreciated. The Turtles have been my secret love since I was a little girl and remain so today. Please let me know what you think.. I'm currently working on the next chapter. Updates may be slow. I have two crazy kids and a business to help run. Thank you again for reading!!


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